


Love Me (Miraculous Ladybug)

by ChatNoirSimp



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is dense, Cinnamon Roll Adrien, Cuddling, F/M, Fluff everywhere, Gabriels a horrible parent as usual, Hugs, Identity Reveal, Kissing, LadyNoir - Freeform, Marichat, Tiny Angst, a lil aged up, adriens scarf, marinette freaks out, marinette realizes chat loves her, so much Adrienette cuteness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:08:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28802559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChatNoirSimp/pseuds/ChatNoirSimp
Summary: After some bonding, Adrien finds himself noticing the pigtailed girl who sits behind him. After a conversation, Ladybug realizes just how much Chat Noir cares for her. What happens when the two are forced to reveal their identities? How will Adrien react to Marinette being his lady? How will Marinette react to Adrien being her flirtatious partner?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Comments: 14
Kudos: 56





	1. Daydreams and Lunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, this is my first story so please go easy on me. My hopes for this story is that it covers the reveal, so hopefully you’ll stay for the ride! The story will mostly center around Adrienette and Ladynoir, but I’ll try my best to add in some Marichat and Ladrien (lord knows we need more of that).
> 
> This chapter has Adrienette fluff, hope you enjoy!

It was a cold day in Paris, somewhere in November, the sun wasn’t out, and there was a slight chilling breeze. It was inside Françoise Dupont High School where Marinette found herself staring at the golden locks of the boy who sat in front of her. She was deep in thought about how she could possibly build up any courage to tell him about her massive crush. 

Marinette wanted more than anything for him to see her as more than a “ just a friend”, as she’d heard him say to Kagami. She was imagining all the hopeful possibilities of what would happen if they were together: they would get married at a gorgeous venue with all their friends, have four— no three kids, and a hamster called....

“GIRL,” Marinette felt a jab in her side as she shifted her gaze from Adrien’s head, and came face to face with a very wide-eyed Alya, as well as the whole class staring at her. 

Marinette immediately blushed at all the stares directed towards her, and observed Madam Bustier’s awaiting gaze, realizing a little too late that she was asked a question. 

Marinette, extremely embarrassed that she had been caught not only not paying attention to the lesson, but also staring at the blonde in front of her, turned a dark red shade and stuttered out, “ C-Could y-you p-pl-lease repeat the q-question?” 

Some snickers were heard from the class, mostly Chloe and Sabrina, but Madam Bustier let out a disappointed sigh, saying, “Marinette you really need to start paying more attention in class, as for the question, I asked who made The Tennis Court Oath.” 

Marinette, still obviously very flustered from being caught daydreaming, trying to scramble her brain for any informational this topic, came up with a light squeak. 

Before she could explain that she didn’t know the question, her next squeak was cut off by Adrien raising his hand stating, “The Tennis Court Oath was made by Jacques-Louis David in 1791.” 

Marinette was bewildered that she had just been saved by Adrien, mentally screaming at herself. Another sigh was heard from Madame Bustier as she said, “Thank you Adrien for answering the question, Marinette please try to pay more attention to the lesson, this is important and will be on the test. On that note, that’s all for today thank you to the few of you that were participating.”

Marinette could tell that last part was directed at her, but it was deserved since she hadn’t been participating all class.

As the bell rang, signaling the official end of class, student started filtering out of class and making their way to lunch. 

Marinette, still freaking out at the fact that Adrien, the boy she had the biggest crush on, had just saved her, was once again broken from her trance as Alya lightly shook her shoulders. 

“Girl if you’re going to daydream don’t make it THAT obvious, at least try to pay attention.” Alya let out a defeated sigh, knowing that Marinette was never going to get over her crush on Adrien was upsetting because she just wanted what was best for her friend ,to have a person to treat her right. 

Adrien was a possibility, but he’d always been so clueless that Alya had started to lose hope. She had considered telling him about Marinette’s feelings, to hopefully get the idea of them being together across to him; but she knew that would break Marinette’s trust. That was the last thing she wanted, so she decided it would be best to not tell him —but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to help Marinette.

“Sorry Alya, I didn’t even realize I was doing it,” Marinette said. It was true, she had grown accustomed to fantasizing about Adrien, so much so that she forgot she was even doing it at times.

“Whatever, you can make it up to me with a yummy croissant from the bakery,” Alya replied, rolling her eyes at her pigtailed friend’s obliviousness. 

Marinette giggled, “Sure let’s eat lunch there today.” 

Nodding in agreement, the two began to pack their stuff up but were stopped when Nino quickly turned around from his seat.

“Hey dudettes, mind if me and Adrien join your lunch.” 

Marinette grew very pink at the thought of having lunch with Adrien. Even if it was with her other friends, she couldn’t help but feel nervous about the numerous possibilities of embarrassing herself. 

Squeaking slightly when Alya elbowed her(again), urging Marinette to respond, she responded, “ Oh, u-um s-sure, you c-can t-totally j-join us.” 

“Are you sure, we wouldn’t want to intrude,” Adrien stated cautiously, his brows furrowed and his green eyes focusing on the bluenette in front of him, growing pinker by the second.

She let out another squeak, which he secretly found adorable, before stuttering out, “N-no it’s no p-problem really.” 

“Yay!” Alya and Nino squealed in unison, as the bluenette continued gazing into Adrien’s perfect face. She too, began packing her things up after a second, thinking about how happy her parents will be to get a visit from her friends. They really loved her friends and would be happy to make them lunch with some fresh bread

Adrien was worried that he was intruding on Marinette and Alya’s lunch, which the last thing he wanted to do, since he already thought Marinette was scared of him. 

She would always stutter around him, sure she stuttered when she was nervous, but when she was around him it was like it got worse, she would avoid eye contact, and was incapable of forming coherent sentences.

That’s why he had to make sure that it was okay with her that they stopped by at the bakery, he wouldn’t want to frighten her by inviting himself. wWen she said yes, even if she was stuttering completely, he couldn’t help but feel happy at the thought of having lunch with his friends. Normally he was just forced to eat his lunch at home alone, so he’d take next to anything instead of that.

They all walked out of the school, heading in the direction of the bakery. Alya went ahead with Nino, locking their hands and resuming their chatting. 

Assuming she just wanted to spend time with her boyfriend, Marinette didn’t protest about being left behind with Adrien, but was having an internal breakdown when she realized how close they were. 

Adrien soon noticed how she unconsciously rubbed her hands together and moved into him because of the cold. He couldn’t help but find it absolutely adorable when a light blush painted her cheeks. 

He noticed her shiver and decided to speak up, “I-if your cold you could always move closer, so we can share body heat,” he immediately regretted his statement, when he saw her face go red, “o-only if you want to. Sorry that was kinda weird. I won’t be offended if you say no” 

Marinette was completely taken aback that her crush had just basically invited her to huddle closer to him. She blushed at the thought of it, but decided to mentally give herself a pep talk. I can do this I can do this I can do this . 

She did want to huddle close to him, not just because she was cold, so she decided that she would try to muster up some Ladybug confidence and agree. I can do this I can do this I can do this, she mentally chanted, as she squeaked out, a little too loudly, “YES.” 

Adrien chuckled and slowly moved closer to her, painfully aware of how red her face was still becoming. He noticed that she was still unconsciously rubbing her hands together from the cold. Adrien tentatively grabbed her ice cold hand.

Marinette was internally imploding, ADRIEN AGRESTE WAS HOLDING HER HAND. All of her previous “I can do it” thoughts were suddenly rushed out of her head and all she could think about was the blondes hand wrapped in her own. 

When she realized that she had stopped walking, causing Adrien to also come to a halt, because their hands were still conjoined, she tried, once again to call on some of her ladybug confidence. She gingerly grasped his hand back, enveloped in the warmth she was provided with. 

Adrien had NOT expected this. He didn’t expect the bluenette to grasp his hand tighter. He didn’t expect that he himself interlocked their fingers. He didn’t expect her hand to fit so perfectly into is. And most of all, he didn’t expect to be blushing at this friendly gesture. He was going to question it, but it felt good, and it definitely warmed him up.

He attempted to compose himself, taking a deep breath in, and continued walking, carefully pulling Marinette with him. He couldn’t help but notice how cold her hand was, and wondered if the rest of her was cold too. Without thinking, he moved closer to Marinette, putting his arm around her shoulders delicately, hoping to keep her more warm. 

This gesture earned him a light squeak because of the new contact, but he didn’t regret it. Honestly it felt kind of good to be walking like this, with this cute girl beside him— no not cute, what was he thinking, “I have feelings for ladybug” he mentally snapped at himself. 

Still conflicted why he would think such a thing about Marinette, he didn’t realize when they arrived at the bakery. 

Adrien was brought out of his daze when the warmth from a few moments ago was suddenly ripped away from him, and he found himself pouting at the fact.

Marinette, still freaking out over the unexpected contact that was bestowed upon her, was regretful when she had to pull away. 

Though she didn’t want to, she couldn’t simply walk into the bakery holding Adrien’s hand, that would give her parents, as well as Alya and Nino the wrong idea. So, she pulled away from him and reached for the bakery door, seeing that Alya and Nino were both inside, chatting with her parents, while also sharing a smug look on each of their faces. 

She realized that her inner turmoil over holding Adrien’s hand must’ve slowed them down, so they arrived later than the other two. Marinette gulped, not nearly recovered from the fact that Adrien and her, had literally just held hands. 

She held the door open for him, hoping that he didn’t think she was a huge mess. 

Adrien watched as Marinette held the door open for him, his nose picking up on the delectable scent of baked bread. He stepped inside the bakery, and was immediately overwhelmed with an amazing warm feeling, not just from the heating system, but also from the feeling of home, a feeling he hadn’t been familiar with since his mother had gone missing. He missed it a lot.

Marinette ran up to give her parents a hug and kiss on the cheek telling them about how she thought it would be a good idea for her friends and her to eat lunch at the bakery. Adrien watched as she pointed to him, and understood that he was probably introducing him. 

He stepped forward saying, “Hi Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng, I hope I’m not intruding.” Adrien was startled when he was pulled into a warm hug by Mrs. Dupain-Cheng.

“Oh Adrien, your never intruding, it’s always a pleasure to have you, and please call us Tom and Sabine!” 

Adrien felt a sense of familiarity wash over him from the motherly hug he was pulled into, and quickly returned it saying, “U-um thank you, Mrs— Sabine.” 

Sabine led the kids to the table, chatting with them while Tom prepared the sandwiches. Adrien’s mouth watered at the sight of the hearty sandwich, knowing that if Nathalie knew he was eating that he would’ve gotten an earful. Oh well what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her, thought Adrien.

The kids ate their sandwiches, Marinette and Adrien blushing as Nino and Alya teased them about the hand holding. Marinette turned red as a tomato after hearing this, Adrien just chuckled it off, mentally thinking that maybe that was too much for just friends.

Soon it was time to go back to school. The four of them were stuffed from the delicious sandwiches and pastries Tom and Sabine had given them. They walked back to school, both Marinette and Adrien way too embarrassed to even attempt “keeping warm” again.


	2. Wounded Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe decides to corner a certain bluenette

After that amazing lunch with her friends, Marinette was positive nothing could ruin her day, boy was she wrong. 

It turns out, a certain red head had informed a certain blonde that she had seen Marinette and Adrien holding hands while waking to the bakery together.

Chloe shrieked at this information, trying to concoct plan on how to get that Maritrash back for hanging out with HER Adrikins. She decided, that she wouldn’t have to do much, just crumbling the bluenette’s confidence should be good enough. After all, Chloe knew that even if Marinette acted like her words didn’t bother her, Chloe knew that they did. 

Chloe set her trap up perfectly, she would get Marinette alone, and then pounce. Chloe smirked at the thought.

At the end of the day, Marinette was packing up things, chatting with Alya, when she was interrupted by brown liquid being spilt all over her.

Marinette gasped in horror, her clothes now soaked with coffee,”Ugh who even drinks coffee at 3 in the afternoon!” Marinette looked up and came face to face with Sabrina, the red head looking oh so innocent after deliberating spilling coffee on her. 

Alya exclaimed, “Sabrina, why would you do that.” But Sabrina put on an innocent face, quickly apologizing, scurrying off to the queen bee. “Oh my god Marinette, I’m so sorry that happened to you,” said Nino,“Don’t worry about it, let me go clean this up,” stated Marinette.

Adrien’s glance had shot up the second he heard Marinette shriek, finding her now soaked in coffee. He watched as Sabrina ran off, no doubt to Chloe. He had no idea why Chloe was such a bully, she had been his first friend and used to be a nice girl, though overly-confident, but she was still nice. Now, every time she was around Marinette she always found a way to antagonize the poor girl.

“Hey Marinette, are you sure you’re okay, that was a lot of coffee.”

“O-oh u-um y-yeah I’m f-fine A-Adrien, thanks,” she squeaked trying her best to hide the enormous blush spreading on her face.

Marinette looked down and rolled her eyes, of course Sabrina just HAD to spill coffee on her, on such a good day too.

After assuring her friends she was fine, Marinette scurried off to the bathroom, getting ready to attempt to get the sticky coffee off of her. What she didn’t expect was the blonde waiting for her.

Not paying attention, Marinette ran into the bathroom, accidentally bumping into a snarling Chloe. 

“Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” Marinette said apologetically, looking up to see Chloes blue eyes of fury glaring at her.

“Well, well, well, look what the trash dragged in.” 

Chloe pushed Marinette against the door, hands on each side of Marinette’s head, preventing her from moving.

Marinette squeaked at the sudden contact of her back pushed up against the bathroom door. 

“Chloe I-I’m s-sorry I-I didn’t mean to run into you.” 

“That’s okay, because you and me need to have a little chat, Maritrash.”

Marinette gulped, sure Chloe had bullied her before, but she’d never go as far to corner her. Marinette looked at the raging blonde, scared of what to come, but tried to keep her cool, so that the blonde wouldn’t know she was getting to her.

“I saw you and MY Adrikins today. Holding hands. How dare you! He would never go for some poor, pathetic, worthless baker- girl like you!” Chloe spat angrily, inching closer to Marinette’s face.

“He’s n-not yours Chloe!” Marinette stuttered back, immediately regretting it when she saw the furious blonde’s eyes.

“Do you really think THE Adrien Agreste would even think of dating you, the stuttering little baker girl?” 

Marinette felt tears prick at her eyes

“Oh, and he is! He’s mine! And he would never EVER go for a piece of trash like you, and if you think differently, you’re UTTERLY RIDICULOUS!” 

Marinette felt the light tears stream down her face . She knew deep down that Chloe’s words weren’t the truth, but that didn’t take away from the fact that her words hurt. They hurt a lot. “He wouldn’t go for someone like you,” the words echoed in her mind.

Chloe backed up once she saw Marinette’s tears, smirking because she knew she was triumphant. 

Almost immediately, Marinette leaped for the door, wanting to get out, to go home, to cry.

While running out the door, she ran into an unsuspecting Alya, but couldn’t bring her red, puffy eyes, to meet her best friend.

“Oh my god, girl, what happened to you,” Alya’s voice was laced with concern as she saw Marinette crying.

Marinette simply ignored her, getting up and continuing to sprint out the school doors. She could hear Alya’s calls from behind her, but her mind still echoed from Chloe’s hurtful words, “poor, pathetic, worthless.” 

Marinette ran out the school doors, ignoring both the cold, and the shocked faces of Nino and Adrien.

“Woah dude, what happened to her?” Nino asked, catching a glimpse of Marinette’s tears.

Alya had caught up, running outside, “I think Chloe did something, I saw her coming out of the bathroom, and tried confronting her, but she denied everything.” 

Adrien watched as Marinette sprinted home, trying to ignore the unsettling churning in his stomach, and he began to run after her. He quickly realized he wasn’t going to catch up, she was quite fast when she wanted to be. 

He ran back to Nino and Alya, a frown etched on his face, saying, “What happened to Marinette, she looks like she’s been crying.” 

“It was definitely Chloe, she’s been tormenting Marinette since forever,” Nino replied, a frown forming on his face too.

“Ugh I’m gonna give that girl a piece of my mind,” Alya started, furiously clenching her fists.

“Woah babe, calm down, I don’t want you to get in trouble.” 

“But she hurt Marinette, and it’s gone on for too long now, I need to do something.” 

Adrien watched as the couple argued over what to do, but he wasn’t paying attention. All he could think about was the look on Marinette’s perfect face, filled with horror and sadness. It made him want to cataclysm something. 

He was calmed down by the nudging of his kwami against his chest. He realized Plagg probably sensed his fury, and in his own way, was trying to calm Adrien down. Adrien was grateful for this, but made a promise to himself that he would check up on his princess since he had patrol today.

———————————————————————  
Marinette arrived at home, disregarding the worried looks on her parents faces, running up to her room. 

She climbed the ladder to her bed and started sobbing.

“Marinette don’t listen to anything Chloe says, she’s trying to get to you,” said Tikki, concern laced in her voice probably from the fear of an akuma.

“N-no s-shes right, I-I’m w-worthless,” Marinette choked back a sob.

“No Marinette you’re not, and you can’t let people bring you down. You’re ladybug! You are the super-heroine of Paris! Don’t let a a jealous Chloe bring you down. She doesn’t know what she’s saying!”

Marinette felt her kwami affectionately nuzzle against her cheek. Marinette knew what Tikki was saying was correct, she knew she was ladybug, adored by others, but she felt so weak inside. Chloe had ruined all her self confidence in just one encounter.

So then, Marinette sobbed. She sobbed so much that it was becoming hard to breathe. She sobbed so much her voice was too hoarse to even talk. She sobbed so much that she felt tired and just wanted to sleep, so that’s what she did.

Sabine knew something was up when Marinette came running through the bakery crying. She was busy with a customer then, but now she had time to go comfort her daughter.

Sabine walked up to Marinette’s room, quietly climbing her ladder, observing the discomposed girl, sleeping. It was obvious she had cried herself to sleep, her eyes were red and extremely puffy, her bed stained with wet spots of tears.

Sabine decided to let her daughter rest, in the morning she could ask all about what caused this type of reaction from her daughter. She gingerly placed a kiss on Marinette’s forehead, climbing down the ladder to get back to work.

——————————————————————  
Marinette awoke an hour later, shaking from a rather terrifying dream about Adrien being with Chloe.

She hated herself for letting Chloe get to her, but each time she thought about it she started crying.

So there she was again, crying her eyes out over the things said by the snobbish blonde. She tried to forget but all she could think about was being called “worthless”.

She continued to cry, until she heard a knocking on her trapdoor.


	3. Visits and Chats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Marichat for our souls

Rolling her eyes, and trying to compose herself, Marinette reluctantly got up from bed, getting ready to tell whoever it was to go away. 

She opened her trapdoor up which led to the balcony, and was met with familiar neon green eyes.

“Well hello there purrincess, I was out on patrol and couldn’t help but see the light in your room,” Chat asked with his signature wink, reaching out to kiss her hand. Immediately regretting this after seeing Marinette pull away, lip quivering, and cheeks flushed, no doubt from crying.

He felt his chest tighten at the sight

Marinette didn’t have the energy to come with a sarcastic reply, so she just rolled her eyes once more, letting him in, trying to hide the fact that she was just balling her eyes out.

Chat’s expression softened from its usually playful look to a frown.

“What’s wrong purrincess, have you been crying?” He knew the answer, it was obvious, but he wanted, for some reason, Marinette to be able to confide in him and trust him.

She sniffled before snapping, “I think it’s pretty obvious I have,” her tone sounded hurt but also angry, and Adrien was taken aback at the pain in her voice.

“Wanna talk about it? Talking helps,” Chat said, once again reaching forward, but slowly this time, trying to be comforting.

This single action caused her to let out an incoherent mumble before tears started rolling down her cheeks.

“H-he’ll n-never f-feel the s-same,” she stuttered out, almost inaudible due to her tears.

Chats heart clenched seeing his class mate in such an awful state. Her hair was messy, probably from sleeping, her clothes were slightly wrinkled, and her eyes were red.

“Who won’t?” Chat tried to sound as gentle as possible, not wanting to push his distressed any more than she’s willing to go. But seeing her cry like this just made him want to put his arms around her and make all the pain go away.

“M-my c-crush,” she replied softly.

“How do you know that?” Chat asked

“B-because i-I’m j-just a w-wo-worthless b-baker g-girl,” she choked on a sob.

Chat felt his hands tighten and his jaw clench. Who in the world had told her these horrible untrue things? Who had made her think this of herself? He was going to find out, and make Marinette never have to listen to them again. 

Even though he had a pretty good idea about who did this, he still asked, “Who said this to you?” He tried his best not to sound angry and not scare Marinette away. 

She looked down, avoiding his gaze, the situation finally clicking in her head. She looked like a complete crying mess and had let Chat Noir into her room. 

“N-never mind, it doesn’t m-matter,” she tried to sound as convincing as possible.

Chat frowned, inching ever so slightly closer, “It’s obviously bothering you, and you’ve been crying, so why don’t you tell me who said these false things to you?”

As if a switch clicked in her, more tears cascaded down Marinettes pink cheeks.

Chat couldn’t take it. He stepped closer to her wrapping his arms around her petite frame, trying to comfort her.

He felt her tense at the sudden contact, but after a few seconds, Marinette took her arms, wrapping them around his back, and cried into his chest.

Chat was so distraught at seeing her like this. He hadn’t seen it before. At school, she was always a bubbly person, even though she stuttered around Adrien. When he’d visited before, she was always so sassy and not nervous at all. 

He was rubbing soothing circles into her back, trying to calm her down, when he heard her squeak out, “C-c-chloe”

So they had been right. Of course it had been Chloe, she’s always attacked Marinette for no apparent reason.

“Well she’s absolutely wrong. You’re one of the nicest girls I’ve met, and you’re kind and caring. Don’t listen to what that girl has to say.”

After standing for a few minutes in each other’s embrace, he felt Marinette stop crying. 

She moved back from him, eyes still very red and glossy, but smiled and said, “thanks Chat,”

“Of course princess, now would you like to tell me what happened?”

She winced a little at the direct question, but decided to reply, “S-she cornered me in the bathroom and said some really hurtful things, like that m-my c-crush would never like me, and that I was p-pathetic,”

“Well purrinces if the boy can’t see how amazing you are, then he’s not worth you’re crush, and you are most definitely NOT pathetic.”

“T-thanks C-chat”

It was weird seeing her stutter when he was Chat, normally she would constantly stutter around Adrien. She was usually so calm and collected around Chat. It made him wonder if she was intimidated by Adrien.

“I’m glad I could help. Never believe the things she said about you. I must get back to patrol, wouldn’t want Ladybug to be dis-purr-leased,” Chat said, hoping that he had been of use to her.

She giggled at his pun. “Silly Kitty, thanks for everything,” she opened her trapdoor back up and led him out.

On her balcony, Chat climbed on the railing, lightly grabbing her hand and pressing a small kiss there, before giving her his signature grin.

Marinette turned red, causing Chat to chuckle a little, before giving her a small wave and extending his baton to leave.

“Bye purrincess!”

She gave him a small wave.

Once he left, Marinette crawled back down her ladder and sat on her chaise.

Tikki came out from her hiding spot, saying, “Chat gave you some good advice today, don’t listen to what Chloe says,”. 

“You’re right, Tikki, he was different today, kinder, and he hugged me” 

Marinette pulled herself out of her thoughts and attempted to fix her hair, heading down to the bakery to smooth things over with her parents.

She walked down the stairs, making her way to the register where her mother was.

“Marinette! Are you alright sweetie I saw you run in crying, and I was going to check on you, but you were asleep when I got there,” Sabine said, pleasantly surprised to see that Marinette was looking much better and not crying.

“Yeah Mama, I’m fine, just had a bad rest of the day at school,”

“Ok well if you need to talk about it, you know we’re here, right?”

“Yes Mama I know,” Marinette said, placing a kiss on her mom’s cheek.

Marinette went back up to her room, thinking about the gentlemanly, sweeter side she saw of Chat today. It made her heart flutter. WAIT. NO. It definitely DIDN’T make her heart flutter. She was in love with Adrien.

But then why did Chat’s small gesture bring a smile to her face?  
______________________________________

There hadn’t been any akumas when Chat was out patrolling, however, he had come across a scruffy looking man trying to rob a younger girl. 

So of course, Chat Noir had stepped in, attempting to ward off the burglar and retrieve the girl’s purse.

Though trying to solve the issue verbally, Chat ended up engaging in hand to hand combat, but was taken by surprise when the man had pulled out a rather large baseball bat.

Chat tried his best to dodge the swings, but was met with a rather overpowering blow to the ribs.

The hit was powerful enough to knock Chat off his feet, stumbling back into the dark wall of the alley. Chat pushed through his pain, getting back off of his feet and rejoining the fight.

He used his baton to counter the baseball bat, and finally, he successfully knocked out the burglar.

Chat returned the purse to the young girl, while also reminding her to be careful and wary when it’s this dark on the streets.

She complied, explaining she was on her way home.

______________________________________  
Once home, Adrien de transformed and plopped lethargically on his bed. 

The miraculous had prevented any major damage, but there was slight bruising which Adrien knew was only going to get worse in the morning if not treated. 

Luckily he didn’t have any shirtless modeling shoots in the future. But knowing Adrien would get questions about the bruise if he sought out proper treatment discouraged him from asking for it. Plus, he had more important things on his mind.

Marinette had hugged him back, even though she was crying, she had hugged back. 

But she was crying because of the stupid things Chloe said, which brought his thoughts back to what she told him. “She said I’m worthless.”

Marinette was not worthless, she was the furthest thing from worthless, and Chloe didn’t need to be feeding her these lies. 

Adrien thought back to Marinette’s crush, who was he? 

Adrien was thinking about all the possible choices in their class: there was Ivan, no he’s with Mylène, there was Kim, but she didn’t show any interest in him, Max, but they didn’t seem like anything more than friends, there was Natha-

“Kid, I swear to god, if I don’t get my cheese in the next few seconds, I will cataclysm this house down.”

“Ugh, calm down Plagg, I was thinking about something, I’ll get you your cheese.”

“Mhmmmm, and we’re you possibly thinking about your ‘purrincess’, or maybe her crush?”

“Plagg, you know Marinette’s just a friend, plus I’m in love with Ladybug.”

“If you say so, now my cheese...”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll go grab some from the kitchen.”

______________________________________  
Next day....

Adrien awoke in pain, his whole body aching.

He carefully got out of bed and made his way to his bathroom.

Once he was in front of the mirror he moved his hand slightly to go to lift up his shirt. He winced when he tried to move his fingers, letting out a small groan. 

“You really should’ve iced that yesterday”

“Thanks for the help, Plagg,” he said sarcastically “but don’t you think Nathalie would be a bit suspicious if I asked for a bucket of ice?”

“Yeah well you still should’ve done something,” the kwami said, making his way to the drawer where his precious cheese was

Adrien rolled his eyes, fighting the immense pain from his abdomen, and lifted up his shirt to see the damage. His whole left side of his abdomen was a purple bluish color, and his right side was a bit better, with purple splotches.

He tried to gently put pressure on it. Immediately, he realized this was a dumb idea, as he winced from the pain afflicted. Adrien decided he would try to get some ice like Plagg had said, because he really didn’t need anyone to question why he was so badly bruised.

Though it was fairly warm in his classroom, Adrien decided it would be best to put on a comfy black t-shirt, and a hoody to further hide the bruising. It took him a few minutes to take off and put on his shirt because of the pain, but he prevailed in the end.

Adrien walked out of his room, heading to the kitchen for his breakfast.

“Good morning Nathalie!”

“Good morning Adrien, have a good day at school today, also tomorrow you have a modeling job for another one of your father’s campaigns.”

“Alright, thank you Nathalie.”

He was hoping that the bruising would have reduced by then, because Adrien wasn’t sure if he would make it.

He made it to breakfast, but was unsuccessful to getting the ice, because of all the staff constantly around, so he decided to skip it, heading towards his bodyguard to go to school.

______________________________________

Marinette burst into the classroom, panting and out of breath as she slid into her seat next to Alya.

“Marinette, please try to come on time,” Madame Bustier said with a sigh, before resuming to the lesson.

“Girl, what happened yesterday, I saw you crying yesterday and tried to run after you, but damn are you fast when you want to be, are you alright?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Chloe just said some not so nice things in the bathroom, but I’m fine now, thank you for worrying.”

“I knew it! That brat denied it, but I knew it was her, don’t listen to anything she said, okay?”

“I won’t, thanks Alya.”

The girls stopped whispering and payed attention to the lesson once more, not noticing Adrien was listening to their conversation and smiling to himself.

So Chat’s visit did help, he thought to himself. 

He was happy to see Marinette looking much better today, her eyes no longer puffy, and her voice no longer hoarse from sobbing.

______________________________________

After about 30 minutes of class, Adrien was starting to sweat.

God! When did class become this hot, he thought, deciding it was time to take his hoody off.

He rustled in his seat a bit, trying not to draw attention to himself, but also trying to ease the pain.

Not noticing the pair of blue eyes from behind him, Adrien carefully removed the article of clothing, tying it around his waist, and focusing his attention back on the class.

Marinette almost gasped out loud. She had been shamelessly staring at Adrien when he decided to remove his hoody. She followed his movements, and watched as he flinched slightly, she wondered why, before he pulled the hoody off. When he had pulled the article off, his shirt rode up a little higher than it was supposed to, giving Marinette a slight glance at Adrien’s horrendously purple side.

How did he get that? Is he hurt? Is he in trouble? Did he get into a fight? Did his father do this? Marinettes mind was swirling with questions, but the most important etched itself into her head: Is he hurt?


	4. Easing the Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette cleans Adrien up

During the entirety of class, Marinette was tapping her pencil against her desk, trying to ease her nerves. 

Alya had nudged her a couple times, trying to get Marinette to stop being so distracting.

She also got quite a few glares from other students for the tapping, though, luckily, none of the stares were from Adrien.

Her mind was swirling with what could’ve possibly happened to him. Marinette decided she was going to push through her stuttering and talk to him, at least enough to know how and why he had those bruises. She considered offering to help, but felt like she might be overstepping.

______________________________________

Once class ended she started hastily started packing her things up.

“Girl, why are you in such a rush?”

“O-oh u-um I need to talk to A-Adrien, so you can go ahead,” she squeaked quietly.

“Marinette. GIRL. Is it the big confession? Are you finally telling him you’re madly in love!?”

“Of course I’m not, Alya, I’m definitely not ready for that,” Marinette replied, rolling her eyes, “I just need some help with uhh homework, yeah homework.”

Alya looked at her skeptically, “Sure Mari, I’ll pretend to believe you,” Alya said, not believing one word her friend was saying.

As students started leaving, Marinette saw her chance. She saw Nino and Adrien chatting at the door, and made her way over.

“Hey Marinette, everything alright from yesterday?”

Of course, just of course, Adrien had seen her balling her eyes out when she had ran home. She mentally cursed herself, but kept her mind on the task at hand: the bruises.

“O-oh y-yeah, I-I’m f-fine n-now, actually IwaswonderingifIcouldtalktoyou,” she murmured , as blush began creeping its way onto her face.

“S-sorry could you repeat that?”

“I was wondering if I could talk to you,” she said, much louder than she had intended to.

Alya and Nino were watching the awkward encounter, Alya deciding it was the right time to take their leave and let the lovebirds chat.

“Man, am I hungry! Nino and I are going to get some ice cream from Andre’s, join us one you’re done with your ‘homework’,” she said elbowing Nino.

Nino coughed, “Yep, totally, really hungry, ice cream, yeah.”

“Have fun you two,” Alya said, interlocking her and Nino’s fingers and walking out the room with a wave.

Marinette wished she had Alya’s confidence.

Turning to her, Adrien saw Marinette glancing at the floor, and mindlessly playing with her fingers.

“So uhh, did you need help with homework?” Adrien asked, quite confused over this entire encounter, “but Marinette was a good friend,’ he told himself, and he was happy to see her no longer crying.

“U-um actually n-no,” Marinette gulped, trying to stop stuttering, “I-, umm, When you lifted up your hoodie in class, you’re shirt rode up a bit, and I totally hadn’t been staring, but I happened to see a really bad looking bruise, and it looked like it really hurt, and I don’t want to pry, now I’m rambling, oh god, and basically what I’m trying to say is, are you okay, the bruise looks pretty bad,” Marinette had tried her best to sound confident, but her face was red as a tomato for basically admitting to staring at him.

Adrien wasn’t looking at her, instead his eyes were locked on the wood floor. 

He hadn’t expected this. He hadn’t expected anyone to see the bruises. He hadn’t expected anyone to question it.

He was shocked, not only from being confronted by shy, usually stuttering Marinette, but also from what she said. She hadn’t asked about who did it, or how he got it, she had asked if he was ok. 

He met her eyes, filled with concern and nervousness. Adrien knew it must’ve been hard for her to muster up the courage to talk about it, because she always seemed to avoid conversation with him. He didn’t know what to do, he hadn’t considered the bruises being noticed.

She cared. She genuinely cared for his well being. He hadn’t experienced real care since his mother, but here Marinette was, a worried frown on her usually happy face. For some reason, Adrien didn’t like being the cause of that frown.

“I-I’m fine. I-I h-had a b-bad f-fencing t-tournament, and kinda fell harder than expected, s-so it bruised” Adrien stuttered, he didn’t like lying to one of his only friends.

Really Adrien, a fencing tournament, you couldn’t think of anything better than that, he could hear Plagg’s speech about it already.

He finally looked up into Marinette’s bluebell eyes filled with hesitation. She looked like she wanted to say something but had her mouth clamped shut.

Marinette could tell he was lying, or at least wasn’t being fully truthful. She watched how he stood, his weight on only one side of his body. 

When he had explained the bruises he had reached up to scratch the back of his neck, and she hadn’t missed the way he winced when he lifted his arm. She knew he was in pain. 

“A-are y-you s-sure you’re alright? I didn’t see m-much, b-but it looked pretty bad. I really don’t mean to pry but may I take a look, you’re movements have been really uncomfortable all day, and it looks like you’re in pain. I have a first aid kit at the bakery and I won’t tell anyone,” she cut herself off, realizing she had started rambling again, “u-umm only if you w-want, that is.” 

Adrien was amazed. Amazed by the girl in front of him, and how she didn’t stutter throughout her proposition. She had just offered him help despite his awful lie, and had even gone as far as to not tell anyone.

‘She’s amazing, like an everyday ladybug. No. I can’t do that. I cant compare them. It’s not fair,’ Adrien thought.

After a couple seconds of seeing the kindhearted expression on his face, he decided to be selfish for once, and agree to being treated.

“I don’t want to bother you with my problems, I’m fine” he stared at the ground once more.

“Adrien, you wouldn’t be bothering anyone with your problems, and you shouldn’t feel that way,” Marinette said firmly “c-come with me, I have a first aid kit, and I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me too .”

“Are you sure? You really don’t have to”

The bluenette looked at him and nodded.

“Thanks, Marinette”

She’s such a good friend, Adrien thought.

They headed out of the classroom in an awkward silence, and headed towards Marinette’s house.

After a couple minutes of walking in silence they reached the bakery and immediately Adrien’s senses were enveloped with the smell of freshly baked bread. 

The bakery always made him feel like home, even though he knew he was really lucky to live how he does, he always longed for the comfort of a home.

Adrien held the door for Marinette as they walked in.

“Oh Marinette, you’re back! How was school?” Sabine excitedly said, walking up to her daughter “Oh you brought Adrien, are you here for a date,” she said, raising her eyebrow playfully.

Marinette’s cheeks reddened and she stammered, “U-um n-no, A-Adrien’s just here to h-help me s-study, n-not a-anything else,” her blush deepened at the thought.

“Y-yeah, t-thanks for having me, Mrs- uhm- Sabine,” Adrien was also blushing from her mom’s words.

“It’s no problem at all! Have fun with studying. If you need snacks let me know!”

“Thanks Mama, we’ll let you know!”

She grabbed Adrien’s hand, without thinking, and walked to the stairs, suddenly realizing what she did.

She released his hand, “O-oh umm sorry, I wasn’t thinking when I grabbed your hand. Sorry,” she said staring at the ground.

“No don’t apologize, I really don’t mind,” Adrien said, seeing the embarrassment look on her face, “so are we going to go ‘study’?” 

She giggled a little, “Yeah, follow me, the kit is in my bathroom.” 

They started walking up the stairs, when Marinette abruptly stopped. 

‘Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, THE POSTERS. Adrien’s going to think you’re a complete freak if he sees all those posters of him. I need to distract him,’ she thought.

Adrien had a confused expression on his face, wondering why she had stopped randomly on the stairs.

“O-oh umm, d-do you mind g-grabbing some, ummm, s-snacks, yeah snacks from the kitchen.”

‘Snacks, really, that’s the best you could do,’she cursed her stupidity

“Oh sure, should I just ask your mom?” 

“Yeah, she’ll give us some pastries. I’m just going to, umm, tidy u-up my room, yeah, tidy it up.”

“Ok, I’ll be back, try not to miss me too much,” Adrien said with a very Chat-like grin.

Marinette froze. Why was she thinking about Chat? She was with Adrien. This whole situation was too awkward.

“O-ok,” she stammered.

Once he started making his way down the stairs, Marinette rushed upstairs.

“TIKKI, YOU HAVE TO HELP ME TAKE THE POSTERS DOWN,” she yelled

“Oh Marinette, what am I going to do with you?” The kwami sighed.

“Please, Tikki, he’ll think I’m some weird stalker,” she said while hastily, but carefully ripping down her precious posters of the model.

“Okay, okay. I’ll get the ones over here,” Tikki agreed, floating the other side of her room.

*****  
Sabine was busy frosting cupcakes downstairs for a new order.

“Hey Sabine, Marinette sent me down to get some snacks if that’s okay with you,” Adrien said nervously.

Sabine stopped piping the cupcakes, and looked up, “Adrien! Oh yes that’s fine, I’ll bring some up in a minute,” she picked the piping bag up and resumed her work, but noticed Adrien’s eyes watching her.

“Is everything alright?”

“Oh, yeah, totally! It’s just, you’re so good at piping, the cupcakes look so good,” he said with a soft smile.”

“Ah, thank you! I’ve had lots of practice. I’m sure if you wanted, Marinette wouldn’t mind teaching you, she’s always loved frosting too,” Sabine said with a smile.

“W-wow, yeah, that sounds like fun.”

Learning how to frost cupcakes? With Marinette? ‘Definitely sounds like fun,’ he thought, ‘maybe she’ll even come out of her shell a bit,’ he hoped.

“I’m almost done, I’ll bring the snacks up, you get back to studying.”

“Ok, thank you for letting me come over, Sabine.”

“Oh Adrien, no need to be so formal, you’re one of Marinette’s friends, you’re always welcome here!”

Adrien smiled, “Thank you.”

*****  
Marinette heard knocking on her door, but this time she was prepared. Tikki and her had successfully stashed all the posters in her closet, and she had taped his schedule up, hoping to god, that it wouldn’t fall while Adrien was over. He would really be freaked out by that. She also had enough time to get the first-aid kit out.

“Come in.”

Adrien opened the door, taking in her room. Sure he’d seen it as Chat Noir, but like once or twice as Adrien. It was just like he remembered though: very pink and very warm-feeling.

He remembered the walls being less bare however, but maybe she had just gotten bored and was changing it up.

Despite being extremely nervous that Adrien Agreste was in her her room, Marinette remembered why he was here: he was hurt. She needed to make sure he was okay before anything else.

“U-um A-Adrien, can you come o-over here, so I can see the b-bruises?”

He gulped, he really didn’t want to worry her, but his body had been aching all day, and he wasn’t sure how much more of it he could take without treatment.

“S-sure.”

She was sitting on her chaise, fumbling with the first aid kit, not daring to make eye contact.

“D-do y-you need me to take my shirt off,” he said hesitantly, before mentally slapping himself, realizing the question. ‘Great going, now she’s gonna think you’re a creep.’

Marinette squeaked at the question, “Y-yeah t-that would make it easier.”

As he went to begin lifting the hem of his shirt, they were interrupted by a knock, and they both visibly jumped at the noise.

“I got the snacks,” Sabine said, holding out a plate of cookies and croissants.

Trying to hide her obviously flustered and disoriented state, Marinette got up from the chaise and took the plate from her mother, “Thanks, Maman!”

“If you need me, I’ll be in the back,” Sabine said, while turning around and walking back down the stairs.

Marinette placed the plate of treats on her desk and walked back to her chaise. As much as she was nervous, she really wanted to make sure Adrien was okay. She did notice that his movements had been stiffer than usual, but she thought she was imagining things. Now, however, she knew that she wasn’t, and that her crush was in real pain.

“O-Ok, may I see the bruising? So I know how much ice to get.” Marinette had seen some of the marks, so she knew ice was definitely needed, she just didn’t know how much.

“Y-you don’t have to ice it, d-don’t worry,” Adrien stammered, he didn’t want to worry her, but he also knew how stubborn she could be at times. Reminded him of ladybug. ‘No. No, I can’t think of her, I’m with Marinette,’ he reminded himself.

“Adrien,” she tried to sound as firm as possible, “I want to help, so could you p- please let me?”

He sighed, “Ok.”

He made his way over to the where she was sitting on the chaise, and looking anywhere but her, he gingerly lifted the side of his shirt to reveal his toned side, covered with purple splotches. 

Marinette had turned bright red and looked away. Her crush was here, IN HER ROOM, taking his top off, right in front of her!!! How was she going to do this without spontaneously combusting? 

‘Breathe, Marinette, breathe,’ she chanted to herself, ‘he’s hurt, and you’re treating him.”

Once she gained whatever composure she could, she turned her head slightly, so that she was face to face with his well- toned, muscular abdomen. But instead of gawking, as she usually would have, she let out a light gasp after seeing the damage. 

“Adrien! What happened to you?” she shrieked, tentatively reaching her hand out to examine the bruise.

Looking out her window, Adrien was blushing. Why? He didn’t know. 

However, the blush was wiped off his face when he heard Marinette gasp. He looked down worriedly at the girl. She had her hand reaching out at his side, but made no contact.

Then, she did. She lightly grazed the pads of her fingers against the bluish patch of skin. Adrien winced.

“I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

“N-no it’s fine, it just took me by surprise.”

Marinette’s head was spinning. Adrien had only lifted his shirt halfway. ‘If this side is so bad, what does the rest look like,’ she thought.

“I-, u-uhm A-Adrien, could y-you l-lift t-the restofyourshirtplease,” she squeaked out.

Adrien looked down at her bluebell eyes filled with worry, as he hesitantly muttered out, “O-oh o-ok.”

With that, he stepped back a little, hooking the bottom of his shirt and pulling the material off of his head.

If anyone were to walk in, they would be thinking a completely different story than what was going on.

Marinette let out a soft shriek when Adrien took his top off.

His whole left side was covered in horrible marks, trailing from the bottom of his collarbone down to his left abdominal side. 

Marinette’s eyes widened at the sight.

His right side, though significantly better, also looked like it had been through quite a bit.

Marinette hastily got up from the chaise, startling Adrien, as she ran to the door of her room. 

“I’m going to get some ice,” she said, the concern very apparent in her voice.

As Adrien heard her leave, Adrien sat down on her chaise with a sigh. ‘What is she going to think happened to me?’

His whole body hurt, despite only his side being hit with the baseball bat. Though he worried about what Marinette would now think of him, he couldn’t find an ounce of regret in his body. It had been so long since someone expressed genuine care for him. He definitely missed it.

Adrien was pulled out of his thoughts when Marinette burst into the room, carrying a bucket, and a little out of breath.. He chuckled a little at the sight, regretting it when his side ached again. She walked over to her bathroom bucket in hand.

She emerged from her bathroom with some small rags, and made her way to the chaise, saying, “O-ok this might hurt a little.”

Adrien got up from the chaise and was, once again, standing in front of her. Marinette blushed a little when her eyes met his abs, but she fought through it, grabbing a piece of ice from the bucket and wrapping it in the towel.

Adrien watched as she carefully brought the ice pack closer to his body.

When the pack made contact, he sharply inhaled, jerking a bit, causing Marinette to pull back.

“S-sorry.”

“N-no, it’s fine, maybe if I sit down, it’ll make it easier for you.”

“O-ok.”

Adrien sat on the chaise next to her. Once again, she gently picked up the ice pack and placed it on his left side, where it was obviously the worst.

This time, Adrien inhaled, but didn’t jerk back. Sure it hurt a lot, but he wasn’t going to make this more difficult for her than it needed to be. He watched her carefully as she pressed the ice back all over his abdomen, occasionally looking back up at him, as if to seek reassurance. Of course, every time she did, he gave her a small nod.

When she finished icing him, she reached into the first aid kit and got out some gauze pads to wrap his body.

“ W-Would it be okay if I-I apply some of these gauze pads, they usually help when I get bruises,”

‘When she gets bruises? I know she’s clumsy, but I didn’t think she would bruise from that,” he thought as a worried expression made its way onto his face.

“Sure,” he said, trying to hide the confusion in his voice.

Marinette got up, and grabbed some scissors to cut the pads. She walked back to the chaise and sat down, picking up some antiseptic. 

He watched as she delicately poured some of the antiseptic onto one of the pads. 

“Ok, so this should make the bruising better by tomorrow,” she said confidently, because she did know what she was doing.

She blushed as she took the gauze pads and began to wrap them around Adrien’s torso. She tried her best to go quickly, since she knew he was in pain. As she was applying the last bandage she observed his arm, checking for bruising there, but instead Marinette found a blue and yellow, beaded bracelet on his wrist.

She was blushing deeply as she hastily wrapped the last bandage around him and went to put the excess away.

She turned, so that she wasn’t facing him while she put the excess gauze pads away and stammered out, “Y-you w-wear t-that bracelet?”

“Of course I do, it was made by one of my best friends,” he said while rubbing the back of his neck.

‘Oh right, a friend, because that’s all I’ll ever be, just a friend,’ she thought, her smile dying down.

Adrien saw the dejected look on her face, but was oblivious as to where it came from. 

“T-thanks so m-much, Marin-,” he was cut off when a scream was heard from outside her window.

Both Marinette and Adrien stiffened, realizing there was an akuma. 

“I-, u-umm, t-thanks Marinette, I just realized that I, uhm, have to come home early today, s-so I’ll be g-going, thanks again,” Adrien said quickly with a smile.

“U-uhm okay.”

Marinette was too preoccupied with the screams from outside to question his horrible excuse. Once she was sure Adrien had left, she opened her purse where Tikki was and said, “Tikki, spots on!”


	5. Gardenia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An akuma battle *gasp* (I’m not good a fight scenes, plz don’t come for me). Ladynoir angst *bigger gasp*. This story is definitely not centered around angst or anything like that (because that just makes my heart hurt), but some will be used to get the plot going. Anyways, thank you so much to anyone reading this story, it means so so so much to me!

Adrien had ran out the bakery, luckily gone unnoticed by Sabine, and ducked into the nearest alleyway. He opened up his pocket and Plagg came flying out, “Aww, is lover-boy sad because his date was interrupted?”

“It wasn’t a date, Plagg,” he said rolling his eyes, “now come on and transform me, we need to help Ladybug, CLAWS OUT.”

Adrien was enveloped his familiar transformation, and now clad in leather, he used his baton to get on top of the building to get a bird’s- eye view. 

He didn’t see the red- and- black spotted heroine yet. All he saw was an older looking woman. Her top was covered in green vines with sharp thorns coming out of them. She had a watering can in one of her hands, and a vine-like whip in the other.

“I AM GARDENIA, AND FROM NOW ON PLANTS WILL GET THE CARE THEY NEED. LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR I WILL GET YOUR MIRACULOUS,” she said taking her whip and flinging it around.

Gardenia poured some of the water from he watering can on the ground and massive vines emerged from the ground, capturing anything in range: cars, lamp posts, and benches.

Chat Noir spotted ladybug and he jumped down from the building, landing gracefully next to Ladybug, who was avoiding the vines and scanning out their opponent.

“Hey Bugaboo, fancy seeing you here,” he winked, “know where the akuma is?”

“I’ve told you not to call me ‘Bugaboo’, and I don’t know where the akuma is, her whip prevents me from getting close enough to see. I’m assuming it’s either in the watering can or the whip.”

“Ah Mlady, one of these days you’ll fall for my charms,” he said with a smirk, “I’ll distract Gardenia, so that you can find the akuma”

“Wait, Chat no!” Ladybug tried to protest, but he’d already used is baton to fling himself towards the snarling akuma.

Ladybug was frozen in place as she saw the vines from Gardenia’s whip extend and wrap around Chat Noir’s torso. 

Chat Noir was trying to disregard the gruesome pain from his side, and was attempting to break free from the vines.

He watched as the akuma yanked the whip, drawing him closer to her. Gardenia reached her hand out to grab his hand which was still wriggling and trying to escape the vine’s clutches. “Silly cat, now you’re miraculous will be mine!” 

Her vine-covered hands were an inch away from his hand before a whizzing sound was heard. Immediately both heads snapped up, to see Ladybug’s yo-yo wrap around the hand Gardenia was using to try to grasp Chat’s ring. 

Once her yo-yo was wrapped around the akuma’s hand, Ladybug tugged with all her might, distancing Chat Noir and Gardenia.

“CHAT, NOW,” she screamed, still using all her strength to restrain Gardenia.

Chat Noir called upon his cataclysm and black bubbles erupted from his hand. He used the cataclysm on the vines, watching as the nasty green plants crumbled under the black touch.

At that moment, Gardenia yanked back at Ladybug’s yo-yo, who was taken off guard, and used the momentum to slam Ladybug against a building wall.

“Take that, you pesky bug.”

“Mlady, are you alright,” Chat said worriedly as he ran over to check on Ladybug.

“Just peachy,” she said sarcastically, rubbing the spot on her back where she was slammed against the wall.

“I think we’re going to need some luck, if we want to ‘leaf’ this fight unharmed,” Chat said, extending his arm out to Ladybug.

“I think you’re right, kitty,” Ladybug said, grabbing his hand and hoisting herself up. “Lucky Charm!”

A roll of bubble wrap fell from the sky, and Ladybug began scanning the area to find clues, then suddenly, it clicked. 

“Chat do you think you can try distracting her again, but this time from a distance, so you can’t get captured again”

“Sure, Bugaboo, whatever your heart desires,” he said with a flirty wink.

Ladybug rolled her eyes, “don’t get ahead of yourself, Minou.”

After they discussed their plan, Chat extended his baton to get out of the alleyway they were backed into. He was back on the rooftops of Paris, and spotted the villain and her vines terrorizing the people.

“Hey Gardenia, I’m gonna need you to ‘leaf’ those people alone,” Chat said, making sure to remember Ladybugs words and keep his distance.

“YOU MANGY CAT, I WILL HAVE YOUR MIRACULOUS, AND THE PEOPLE OF PARIS WILL LEARN HOW TO RESPECT THE PLANTS,” Gardenia said, suspending her vine-whip to reach Chat. 

Chat simply dodged the swing, jumping out of the way. 

“Well you’re going to need to do better that,” he said, balancing on his baton, nonchalantly. He could see Gardenia getting angry, as she continued to swing, and he continued to dodge. He was gradually running out of breath from the dodging. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blur of red running in the direction of the akuma.

Ladybug used her yo-yo to propel herself towards the distracted villain, and weaved the bubble wrap around Gardenia’s body.

Gardenia let out a surprised shriek before turning her attention away from Chat Noir, and now focusing on Ladybug. Gardenia was completely wrapped in the bubble wrap, constricting all he movement, including her watering can.

As the akuma squirmed against the wrap, Ladybug used the distracted state of her, and the fact that her thorns were no longer a threat, to get close enough to rip the watering can out of her hands. Ladybug smashed the can against the ground and captured the black butterfly that flew out with her yo-yo.

“No more evil doing for you little akuma, time to de-evilize,” she released the butterfly saying, “Bye bye, little butterfly.”

“Miraculous Ladybug!” The little butterflies covered the sky and erased all traces of the vines. Benches, lamps, and even people were freed from the plants, and, the previously Gardenia, was sitting on the ground.

Chat came down from the spot he’d been on of the building, landing next to Ladybug with a fist out. She returned his gesture and they did their usual fist bump. “Pound it!”

“W-where am I?” The lady who had been akumatized was getting up from the ground, holding her head, with a very confused expression on her face.

“You were akumatized ma’am, but everything’s fixed now, so we should be heading out.”

The woman’s eyes widened, and she apologetically said, “Oh I’m so sorry for causing trouble, I must’ve been too angry over those kids messing with my plants.”

“It’s alright ma’am, all in the days work,” Chat said

Chat and Ladybug gave her a smile before making their way to their usual spot they go to if they have more time, the Eiffel Tower.

Chat Noir had been thinking of confessing again to Ladybug, but he needed the right time. 

Every time he’d attempted before, they were interrupted by either an akuma or the beeping of their miraculous. It was never the right time, until now. 

It was sunset, the perfect time for Chat to ask his very important question. Ladybug was leaning against one of the beams on the tower looking out at the horizon. They would usually stay a little longer after battles if their miraculous hadn’t beeped yet.

Chat Noir cleared his throat and hesitantly stammered , “U-uhm, Mlady, may I ask you something?” 

Ladybug turned her head from the sunset, her big blue eyes staring at him.

“Sure Chat, what is it?”

He gulped, knowing in his head that it was know or never. Stepping closer to her, he said in the gentlest tone possible, “Ladybug, I-I l-love you, a-and I know you don’t feel the same, but do you think you could maybe give us a chance?”

Chat watched as Ladybug’s previously calm expression warped into an expression of confusion. 

He knew he shouldn’t have brought it up, but his feelings were getting the better of him, and he just wanted a reason for why she couldn’t accept. Ladybug had always wanted to keep identities secret, which Adrien never necessarily agreed with, but could comply with. What Adrien didn’t understand was why they couldn’t be a couple. It would make them fight better during battle, they’d be in synch, plus there was no denying the attraction that was present between them.

Ladybug took a deep breath in, “Chat,” she said firmly, “I’ve told you I can’t love you, and you need to stop asking me to try. It’s not fair to me, and it would be way to dangerous if Hawkmoth ever found out.”

Chat visibly deflated, his cat ears drooping, but he decided to push through the hurt and pain, “b-but why, it’s not only that is it? Is it the other b-boy you told me about?”

Seeing her expression was all the confirmation he needed. 

Ladybug was looking at the ground, her hands formed into fists. Her usual cheery, or even sassy, expression was gone, and replaced with a much more sorrowful one. 

Without letting her say a word, Chat Noir clenched his own fists and the pain turned to irritation. All he’d ever given her was his heart. All he’d ever wanted was hers. Usually he would accept the rejection, coming up with a pun or joke that she would come around some day, but not today. Today, Chat was angry at not only Ladybug’s rejection, but her lack of an answer. He wanted an answer.

As he took a step away from her, he harshly spat out, “WHAT DOES HE HAVE THAT I DON’T. WHAT IS HE DOING THAT I’M NOT!” 

All the pain from her rejection had projected itself into his voice, which was slightly cracking due to the fact that he was on the verge of tears. He just wanted to know why. He needed to know why. Why couldn’t she love him? Was he not good enough? What was he doing differently from the boy she liked?

Ladybug stepped away from the beam she was leaning on previously, and got her yo-yo out, she had a frown etched on her face.

“I’m not doing this Chat. You need to respect that I don’t want a romantic relationship with you.” 

She didn’t dare to make eye contact for the fear of crying too. Chat’s words had affected her more that she thought. Of course she loved Chat in a platonic way, but her heart has belonged to Adrien ever since he gave Marinette that umbrella in the rain.

Chat wasn’t speaking, he had stepped away from her and was staring at the ground with his same clenched fists.

Ladybug walked to the edge of the tower before saying, almost to soft to hear, “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you what you want.” But Chat Noir did hear, thanks to his super- hearing, and it only added salt to the wound. With that, Ladybug took off, swinging off street lamps and heading home. 

Chat stayed on the tower, looking off into the orange tinted sky, as he processed what just happened. 

‘I don’t want a romantic relationship with you.’ It echoed through his head, as he heard his miraculous beep, and beep, and beep, until he was de-transformed on the Eiffel Tower, by himself. 

Plagg flew out of his ring with a apologetic expression on his face. Instead of asking for food he nuzzled into Adrien’s hair and asked, “Kid, are you alright?”

Adrien shook his head. His body was shaking slightly, his hands covering his eyes as he cried. He had brought his knees to his chest, and was curled up into a ball. He most definitely was not ‘alright.’

He’d been rejected by Ladybug before, but this time everything felt so off. She was completely distant when she answered, making it look like she was avoiding the question. He couldn’t help but feel horrible inside, but Adrien knew he needed to get home before Nathalie or his father found out he wasn’t there.

Without a word, he opened his jacket pocket to find some camembert, taking it out and giving it to Plagg, who had the same remorseful look on his face as before. Plagg quickly ate the cheese, not wanting to irritate Adrien anymore than he already was.

Adrien waited for Plagg to finish the cheese, the tears still running down his cheeks. When Plagg finished Adrien said, in a very hoarse voice, “Claws out.”

He ran home, following the same routine he always had, but his head was somewhere else. Ladybug didn’t love him, and she made it seem like she never would.

He jumped through this window and dove straight for his bed. Plagg flew off into his cheese drawer, knowing it wasn’t the best time to joke around. When Adrien plopped down, he felt an uneasy feeling from his abdomen. ‘Oh that’s right, I’m injured’ he thought. 

As he lay on his bed, he thought more and more about Ladybug, and her crush. Her crush who wasn’t him. Her crush who he couldn’t compare too. Suddenly, all the pain was replaced with a feeling of jealousy and anger. Adrien had been jealous before, but never like this, and he didn’t expect it to hurt so much.

He was eventually pulled out of his thoughts when his side started to pain again. Adrien lifted up his shirt to examine his torso, and saw the bandages. The bandages Marinette had wrapped him in. ‘She didn’t even pry for answers,’ Adrien thought to himself, ‘She’s amazing.’ He didn’t even bother to retreat from that thought, he just accepted it, because it was true, Marinette was amazing. He focused on that thought.

That night, Adrien fell asleep hugging his pillow, thinking about Marinette, not Ladybug, not the rejection, just sweet Marinette.

___________________________

Ladybug climbed through her trap door, landing on her bed. “Spots off.” 

Marinette sat on her bed, processing what just happened. 

“You know, Marinette, you were kind of harsh on him,” Tikki said, munching on a cookie.

Marinette’s fist clenched as she frowned, “I definitely wasn’t harsh on him! That alley cat needs to know when to stop. I’ve already told him I can’t love him. And what does he do? He asks me to try! Like I said to him, that’s not fair.”

“I know Marinette. I know.” Tikki nuzzled against Marinette’s cheek in a calming way, “But try to think of it from Chat’s perspective. He had to build up all the courage to express his feelings, only to be rejected, and made to feel like he wasn’t good enough compared to your crush.”

“I-I didn’t compare them,” Marinette stammered, but deep down she knew she really did. She compared Chat, her loving partner, to Adrien, the boy of her dreams.

Marinette’s eyes widened at her realization. “Oh no, Tikki. No, no, no, no. I did compare them,” she covered her face with her hands, “I hurt him. I hurt my partner. I hurt Chat.”

“Oh Marinette, it’s okay, you can make up for it.”

Marinette began to cry. “I-I don’t know if I can.” 

She knew she didn’t love Chat like that because of Adrien. She knew he wasn’t joking when he confessed, there was not a trace of comedy in his tone. And what did she do, instead of being polite? She had just snapped at Chat without any warning. She had just blatantly rejected him, ignoring his feelings, and only thinking of herself. She had been selfish. She might have ruined everything.

“I might’ve messed everything up, Tikki,” Marinette said meekly as Tikki stroked her cheek, “Then you need to be the one to fix it.”

That night, Marinette cried herself to sleep, but she knew Tikki was right. She needed to apologize and fix this.


	6. The Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien sees Marinette and decides to say hi. Marinette gets some courage to asks him something

Adrien was currently scrolling through his phone on a bench near the site of the photoshoot. He’d been told to ‘take 5’ because his smile didn’t look natural enough. Why would it? His heart has just been crushed, and he was being forced to be out in the park for a photoshoot at 7 am. 

Flashback  
Adrien had been awakened rather early by Plagg’s lovely whining about not having enough cheese. 

“Adrieeeennn, I need more camembert we’re all out.” It seemed his all sorrowful act from yesterday was replaced by his usual, whiny self. 

“Ugh, Plagg is all you think about your stomach?” Adrien groggily got up from his bed, his side still very sore, but feeling less painful than it was. ‘Marinette was right,’ he thought.

“Of course my stomach is all I think about! The most important part of life is cheese.”

Adrien rolled his eyes getting out of bed, “I’ll order you some cheese once i finish getting ready, Plagg.”

“Don’t take too long, I’m not sure how much more my stomach can handle,” Plagg said, rather sassily.

“Drama king,” Adrien murmured, walking off to his bathroom.

He looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was a mess, the blond locks were tangled and all over the place, a very non-Adrien like hairstyle. His hair was always perfect, even as Chat Noir, it was tousled, but not messy. He smoothed out his hair to the best of his abilities with his fingers. Next, he looked at his eyes. They were a little red, and had small bags under them, no doubt from crying.

This was when Adrien remembered why he’d been crying. The memories from the previous night came flooding back to him as he stared at himself in the mirror. He pushed those thoughts out of his head, splashing his face with the cold tap water. It worked to wake him up a bit, and ease the redness, but did nothing for the bags under his eyes.

As Adrien splashed his face, desperately trying to rid his usually perfect face of the bags, he heard a knock on his door. “Come in.”

Adrien walked out of his bathroom as Nathalie walked in his room, tablet in hand, wearing her usual suit. Her eyes immediately darted to his own. 

“Adrien! Why do you have bags under your eyes?” 

Adrien sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, “O-oh, I had a rough night, that’s all.”

“Oh, well,” she said, stepping closer to him to further examine the light purple splotches, “nothing the concealer won’t be able to cover up.” 

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows, ‘concealer?’ 

Nathalie looked back down at her tablet, “It’s a good thing your up, if not, you were going to be late for you’re photoshoot.”

‘Oh, that’s right,’ Adrien mentally rolled his eyes at the thought, ‘another photoshoot.’

“Make sure you get dressed quickly and come down to breakfast, the photoshoots in half and hour,” with that, Nathalie turned on her heel and walked out the door.

Adrien checked the time and groaned , 6:45 was way too early for a photoshoot. 

“Adriennnnnnn, my cheese!” Plagg’s nags were getting really annoying, “Seriously Plagg, I’ll get you your cheese, calm down,” Adrien said, quickly pulling out his phone and ordering more Camembert. Once the order was processed, Adrien help the phone up to the kwami’s bulging green eyes, “See, all done, I’ll get you something from the kitchen for now.” 

Plagg scoffed impatiently, “Fine.”

Adrien went to his dresser pulling out a random t-shirt and some sweatpants (since it didn’t matter what he wore because they always had the actual outfits there). He got dressed and made his way to the dining hall, and as he expected, all the many seats around the polished glass table were empty. There was a plate in front of Adrien’s normal seat, filled with his typical, healthy, dull breakfast. He sat down at the empty table and began to eat his eggs and sip his kale smoothie. It wasn’t a bad breakfast, by any means, but it was so boring because of how often he got it to eat, that it made it seem bad.

“Ah, good, you’re dressed, we’ll be leaving soon,” said Nathalie as she walked into the dining hall, eyes glued to her tablet. “Also Adrien,” she added in a much softer tone, “Your father will be going on a business trip around Christmas time, and won’t be back until after Christmas.”

Adrien took in the information he just received. 

“Of course he isn’t,” Adrien said with a snarky tone, picking at his food. However, Nathalie didn’t miss the disappointment on his face. “I’m sorry,” she paused, gauging his reaction; Adrien was still picking at the food on his plate, not looking at her, “but this is a very important trip for the company,” she explained apologetically.

Adrien stopped playing with his food, putting on his best fake smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

Nathalie nodded, not believing a word he said, and started walking towards Gabriel’s office, “Maybe you can stay with one of you’re friends, if you want,” she mentioned, before fully leaving the room.

‘Maybe I will,’ Adrien thought hopefully, finishing his food and quickly scurrying off to the kitchen to find some cheese for Plagg. He made sure he was alone before walking inside. Plagg flew out of his jacket immediately, once catching a whiff of cheese, floating over hastily to gobble up the cheese.

“Plagg, you’re such a pig.”

“Mhmmmm,” came the muffled reply.

Adrien rolled his eyes, wrapping up some cheese and putting it into his jacket pocket. “Ok, we should get going now, wouldn’t want to be late and ruin fathers amazing reputation,” he said very sarcastically.

____________

Nathalie walked into Gabriel’s office, eyeing the massive painting of Emilie as she walked in.

“What is it Nathalie? Is there something wrong with the scheduling of the photoshoot?”

“No, no, sir, nothing like that. I told Adrien about how you won’t be here for Christmas,” she looked him in the eyes, “He was really disappointed, thought he tried to hide it.”

Gabriel trailed his eyes back down to his screen, “Well, it can’t be helped. This is a big trip for the company, and we can’t let that go to waste just because Adrien doesn’t want me to not be home for Christmas,” he remarked.

Nathalie sighed regretfully, “Fine, that’s all, we’ll be going now.” She honestly couldn’t believe how Gabriel didn’t even think twice about leaving Adrien for Christmas. 

Gabriel was too engaged in the miraculous and bringing Emilie back, and Nathalie knew it would result in Adrien being hurt even more than he already was. He was still barely coping, and his mother magically appearing wasn’t going to help his case.

__________________

Adrien thanked his bodyguard and got into the back of the limo, where Nathalie was waiting. He slumped into the seat and yawned, “Why are we doing this so early, usually the shoots are later in the day?”

“The photographer suggested it would be best to do this early, so that the lighting would be best,” Nathalie stated, typing furiously away on her tablet.

Adrien was silent for the rest of the ride, thinking about how he was going to be alone for Christmas this year. His thoughts soon wandered to Ladybug, but he quickly moved those thoughts away, trying to prevent another set of tears.

__________________

End of flashback

Here Adrien was, sitting on the park bench solemnly, because he was told his pose wasn’t “natural” enough, and his smile looked forced. That made sense, since it was.

He was scrolling through this phone, when he heard the distant sounds of someone running. Now, a normal person wouldn’t have picked up on this, but ever since Adrien got Plagg, he’s experienced heightened senses, hearing being on of them.

Adrien looked up from phone to see observe the person running by, since he had nothing better to do. He didn’t expect to see Marinette running, panting slightly, earbuds in her ears. She had stopped to get a drink of water from her water bottle.

She was wearing active wear, something he rarely ever saw her in. She was sporting a red gym crop top, which clung to the top half of her body very flatteringly. It had black and pink stitch lines, which further accentuated the red. It looked like an original design, a very professionally made original design, but then again, this was the girl who won Gabriel Agreste’s fashion competition. She also had on some black leggings, making the red top really pop, paired with some very on-brand pink sneakers. 

Being extremely bored sitting on that bench all by himself, Adrien decided he would say hello to his classmate, maybe get her to say some coherent sentences. He never did understand why she would only act shy around him. With anyone else, Marinette was full of life, but with him, it was the exact opposite, she was shy and reserved, and never made eye contact with anything but the floor. She recently came out of her shell a bit when she had helped clean him up, but that was more out of worry, rather than free will.

Adrien got up from the bench, making his way over to her. “Adrien, where are you going, we still need you, these pictures are no good,” the photographer said, still looking at the pictures from the camera.

“I’m just going to say ‘hi’ to a friend, it’ll only take a second.”

“Make it quick, we need these pictures for you father’s new collection.”

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Adrien thought, making his way to Marinette, who was chugging out of her water bottle like she hadn’t drunk water in days.

When he walked up to her, she didn’t notice, her earbuds blasting so loud that Adrien could hear the music. Adrien lightly tapped her shoulder, trying his best not to startle her, but his attempt was awfully unsuccessful. Marinette’s usually calm blue eyes widened when she felt his hand, then she promptly jumped, what looked like, two feet in the air, and dropped her water bottle, before losing her balance and falling straight towards the concrete.

Marinette prepared to land harshly on the ground, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. She was surprised when instead of feeling the hard ground beneath her, Marinette felt strong, muscular arms catch her. The arms wrapped tightly around her waist, protectively, as they helped her regain her balance.

Once she was sure she was no longer falling, she opened her eyes and her mouth, fully prepared to have to apologize to an unsuspecting stranger, and having to thank them for catching her. Her mouth immediately closed when she saw the “stranger.” 

Marinette was at a loss for words. Adrien Agreste had his arms wrapped around her waist. Adrien Agreste had just saved her from most likely splatting against the concrete. Adrien Agreste was really close to her.

Adrien pulled away after stabilizing her, slightly taken aback at how the situation had just played out. He knew she would probably be shocked but he didn’t expect her to literally jump into the air, and then fall towards the ground. Luckily he was quick enough to catch her and prevent damage. However, he didn’t miss the expression on her face; she was red, like extremely red, and her eyes were focussed in a downward gaze.

When he was scanning her face, he also got a closer view of her attire. The outfit was just as cute as it looked on her a few moments ago, but getting a closer view he saw how toned the lower part of her stomach was. He would’ve never guessed that Marinette of all people was well toned, but then again, he was never really looking, and she didn’t really flaunt it. 

Adrien quickly darted his eyes up once he realized just what he was doing, and how it probably made her very uncomfortable.

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he removed his hands from around her body and stepped back a bit to give her back her personal space, “I just had a photoshoot and saw you out, so I thought I would say hi.”

That wasn’t only the reason, however, that he wanted to come up to her. He also was intrigued, because Marinette really didn’t seem like the athletic type. She was clumsy and got flustered easily, so seeing her out, running confidently, seemed really out of the ordinary. But then again, he really didn’t know her at all. Sure, Adrien knew she liked fashion design, and she was obviously good at it, but he didn’t know much else. He considered her a friend, but he didn’t even know if she considered him one back, since she always seemed so antagonized around him.

Marinette finally looked back up at him, embarrassment evident in her cerulean eyes. Her whole face was even redder, if that was even possible, and she was still avoiding his gaze.

“N- no, y-you don’t have to a-apologize, y-you j-just startled m-me,” Marinette whimpered, bending down and picking up her (now probably dented) water bottle from the sidewalk.

While she did this, Adrien was staring at her, and he noticed her eyes looking slightly puffy and red, kind of like the time when Chat had paid her a visit. ‘So she’s been crying,’ he thought, wondering what had made Marinette, the usual ball of sunshine, cry, and how he could make it better.

He knew it wasn’t best to bring it up, because that would probably result in her feeling even worse. Adrien also didn’t feel like comforting anyone after the events of last night, so he thought it would be best to avoid any topic of that.

“Well, I’m sorry for startling you. Hey, I didn’t know you ran this early in the morning.” Adrien mentally smacked himself over and over. ‘Seriously that’s what I said, she’s gonna think I’m so weird.’

Marinette stared back down at the floor at the question, he blush lightening slightly, but still leaving her face very pink. 

The truth was, Marinette hated running; obviously there was a fair amount present with being Ladybug, but in her civilian form, Marinette couldn’t stand it. Running for fun was just something that never clicked correctly in her head, so she avoided it when she could. Today, however, she woke up at 5am from one of many nightmares she had about Chat, and when she wasn’t having those horrible nightmares, Marinette was fidgeting in her bed unable to sleep. All she could think about was Chat, and what she’d done.

Finally, deciding she wasn’t going to get anymore sleep, Marinette decided she’d go on a comforting walk to attempt to relax. She soon realized that walking left an abundance of time to think about problems she really didn’t want to think about, so she went home to grab some music. Her parents were confused about Marinette’s sudden outburst of fitness, but decided not to push on it because they were getting the bakery open for the day. Marinette soon determined that running was a much better pass time because she could either drown out her problems with her music or by being out of breath. She didn’t even realize there was a photoshoot going on right in front of her. Normal Marinette would have gawked at how perfect Adrien looked in the light sunlight of the morning, but this Marinette was just too out of it to care.

Deciding the silence had gone on for too long, and potentially trying to save herself from any further embarrassment, Marinette spoke up, voice squeakier than she anticipated, “O-oh I-I just thought it would be a good idea to get in shape, you know, since the years coming to an end and all, new year, new me.” Marinette really wanted to drown herself in the Seine after saying that. ‘Who even says that.’

Adrien chuckled slightly, completely knowing she was lying, one because of the lingering redness in her eyes, and two because it was very apparent she didn’t need to get in shape. At all. Though, Adrien couldn’t help the twisting feeling in his stomach at the thought of Marinette crying, he decided not to press on the matter any further, because she obviously didn’t want to talk about it.

“Oh that sounds like fun, it’s really early though, I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeah, I couldn’t really sleep last night, so I thought it would be best to come on a run,” Marinette muttered.

‘Oh,’ Adrien thought, ‘She couldn’t sleep because of whatever was bothering her.’ He decided that he would ask her about it now, because that’s the friendly thing to do, right? Friends ask each other if there okay, so this should be fine, shouldn’t it?

“Are you okay, Marinette, you seem a bit out of it?” He wasn’t lying, Marinette had been even more fidgety than usual at this little encounter, and he really wondered if she found him intimidating.

Marinette made eye contact with Adrien for the time that day, forcing a smile, “Yeah I-I’m totally f-fine.” She wasn’t fine, but she didn’t want Adrien Agreste of all people to worry about her.

Most people wouldn’t pick up on the smile as forced, but being a model, and having done it himself on countless occasions, Adrien knew it wasn’t a genuine smile. It was obvious she really didn’t want to talk about it, so he decided maybe it would be best if he went back, his presence seemed to put her on edge a bit, anyways.

“Okay then,” he said, trying to make her smile, or at least wipe the fake one off of her face, “Well, I should be getting back, this is apparently a very important photoshoot for my father’s company,” Adrien stated, using air quotes for the last part.

Marinette seemed to be snapped out of whatever daze she was from his previous question, and she felt a bit disheartened that he was leaving. Sure, during this whole awkward encounter she made an absolute fool of herself, but she really did enjoy talking to Adrien alone, when there was no Alya pressuring her (she loved Alya, but sometimes it was too much), no Chloe antagonizing her, and no Nino distracting Adrien.

Marinette realized that she probably wouldn’t get to meet Adrien like this again, and she really did want to, so, she did the most un-Marinette-like thing she’s ever done, and mustered up what little courage she had to stammer out, “S-since t-that big test is coming up before b-break, d-do y-you want to come over to s-study together?” 

She was appalled that she actually got her sentence out. Did she stutter? Very much, but she still managed to ask him, and with Marinette, progress was progress.

Adrien was surprised to say the least. His shy classmate was actually taking the initiative? That was very uncalled for.

“I-I mean I’ll have to ask permission,” Adrien saw the way Marinette shifted uncomfortably, “but I can try to persuade Nathalie, so who’s coming, just you and me?” He asked with a small Chat-like grin, which caused Marinette’s brain to short circuit. 

“I-I uhm,” she started fidgeting with her fingers, “U-um A-Alya and N-Nino will be there too! Y-Yeah, they’re definitely coming, totally!” Just when she’d started making progress with her crush, of course she had to make something up because she didn’t want to be alone with him. Marinette had just sabotaged herself, Alya was going to totally laugh at her for this.

“Okay, I’ll do my best to persuade my father, hopefully he’ll agree, since it’s for study purposes! Is there anything in particular you wanna review? I’m pretty good at physics, if you need that,” Adrien said sheepishly.

Marinette’s cheeks flushed pink again. This was why she loved the blonde in front of her. He was so caring and put everyone in front of himself. It reminded her of the time with the umbrella.

“T-totally!” Marinette said, having no idea what she just agreed with, too busy getting lost in the model’s perfect green eyes.

“Okay! I should probably get back now. See you at school on Monday!” Adrien smiled and waved as he walked back to the location of the photoshoot.

“B-bye,” Marinette managed to say. She soon realized she was just standing on the sidewalk watching Adrien’s photoshoot. ‘God, I look like such a creep.’ She composed herself, turning her music back on, and sprinted home, she needed to tell Alya about this mess.


	7. The Signature

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here’s some more Marichat cuteness. Thanks for all the comments and kudos, I really appreciate it.

“Girl! How do you even get yourself in these situations!”

“I don’t know Alya, but I guess I got nervous and panicked, so I said I invited you and Nino to make it less weird,” Marinette said into the phone, rolling over on her bed, staring at one of her posters. It was her particular favorite (even though she loved all of them) because it wasn’t from a model shoot. There was a genuine smile on her face, and he looked so happy.

It was much later, but Marinette had forgotten to call Alya earlier, being so tired from her run that she came home, took a shower, and plopped down on her bed for a nap. Her parents had a really busy day at the bakery, so they didn’t question her actions.

“I don’t even think he’ll be able to come, so that will save me from some embarrassment.”

“Marinette. Girl. You invited him, he’s going to try to come, you can’t just rely on the fact that he might not come as reassurance for embarrassing yourself.”

Marinette groaned, “Ugh. I should have even done this, he probably thinks I’m even weirder now,” she got up, making her way to her desk to attempt some of the homework she’d procrastinated.

“No, no, no. This is major progress for you. I didn’t ever think I’d see the day where you actually took the initiative. Plus, when Adrien comes, you won’t make a fool of yourself. Just think of him as a regular person, not your crush and the boy you’re madly obsessed with.”

“I’m not that obsessed,” Marinette uttered, not even believing herself.

Alya chuckled, “Yeah, yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night. Sorry Mari, I gotta go, Nino’s picking me up soon, and I need to get ready.”

“Ooh, have fun on your date,” Marinette gushed, “tell me how it goes!”

“I will. Bye, M.”

“Bye Alya!”

Marinette hung up and decided it was definitely time to start working on her homework. It was only Saturday, so she did have Sunday, but she needed to help her parents with a bigger order, and she really didn’t want to spend all day lifting boxes and frosting cupcakes, and then have to also do chemistry on top of that.

She started on her homework, but her thoughts wandered to Alya. She and Nino had been going steady, and he was taking her out tonight. Alya was so happy about it that it was all she talked about the week prior, that and the Ladyblog. Luckily, Alya hadn’t captured the aftermath of Gardenia’s wrath on her livestream, Marinette would have hated if her and Chat’s fight was shown to all of Paris.

Marinette knew she messed up, she knew she had to make it up to him, but she wasn’t sure how. She really didn’t know anything about her masked partner, though it was her fault for that. Chat had wanted to reveal identities since the day they met, but Ladybug had put her foot down, and still was, and Chat had respected that. 

“God, he really didn’t deserve the way I treated him,” Marinette confessed softly.

“Who? Chat?” Tikki’s voice piped up from Marinette’s side.

“Yeah, I just feel so bad, and I don’t know how to make it up to him,” she sighed, trying to get her pencil to write down the equations.

“Marinette, it’s okay to make mistakes, you know. What matters is that you learn from them, and you’ve definitely learned from this. Just apologize to him. You know Chat, he isn’t one to hold a grudge, and in the end he will understand. I think you just startled him with your snappy answer and your hasty leave,” Tikki noted, patting Marinette’s arm affectionately.

“You’re right. Whenever I see him next, I’ll apologize, and beg for forgiveness.”

“Oh Marinette, don’t stress about it, you should finish your homework. You have to patrol soon.”

“Ugh, you’re right”

Patrol. She’d forgotten about that, and honestly she wasn’t ready to face Chat just yet, she was positive she would turn into an absolute mess if he didn’t forgive her. But she wouldn’t blame Chat if he didn’t show up either, she wouldn’t if she was in his position: harshly rejected by your crush. She shuddered at the thought of Adrien treating her like how she’d treated Chat, making her realize even more how rude she’d been. It also made her realize she wasn’t going to be confessing to Adrien anytime soon.

“Yes, so you should get back to doing homework.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Marinette mumbled, picking up her pencil once more.

_________________

Adrien sighed, stepping out of the shower, wrapping himself with his towel. He briefly observed the bruise in the mirror, happy to see that, thanks to Marinette, it had healed a bit and looked much better. He walked over to his dresser, pulling out some comfortable pajamas.

“Plagg do you think she’s okay?”

“Who?” Plagg grumbled through this bite of cheese.

“Marinette, she seemed pretty weird today.”

“Weird?” Plagg questioned, letting the crumbs of his cheese fall to the floor.

“Weirder than usual. And don’t drop your crumbs!” Adrien scowled, picking up the crumbs.

“Why do you even care, you love Ladybug, right? Since when was Marinette in the picture?”

Adrien shot the flying cat a deadly glare at the mention of the spotted heroine. Plagg just sneered, unbothered by the daggers in Adrien’s eyes.

“Well? Am I wrong? Or do you like Marinette now, and not Ladybug?”

“No, Plagg. That’s not it,” Adrien said rather harshly, contemplating Plagg’s questions. Did he still love Ladybug? Of course he did! He wouldn’t be in love with her in the first place, if he lost his feelings so quickly. 

Did her words hurt him more than he would like to admit? They definitely did, but he couldn’t help loving her, even if she liked someone else. She was perfect to Adrien, the embodiment of a perfect person: smart, witty, beautiful, sassy, and just amazing.

Adrien let out a sigh, “I still love Ladybug, that won’t change,” Plagg rolled his eyes, “but Marinette had been crying today, and she was running to get her mind of it. I didn’t take her for the running type.”

“So, she just had a bad night, and went for a run, what’s out of the ordinary?”

“Plagg-,” he said flatly, “She also lied to me. She said she was fine, and she even faked smiled. Do you think Chloe said something to her again?”

“How would I know? Also maybe she didn’t want to worry you, you were being a little invasive.”

“I was?” Adrien puzzled, “I thought that’s how friends were supposed to act, you know cheering you up when you’re down, and all. Oh no, did I mess up? Do you think she’ll hate me even more now.

“I mean I wouldn’t know, I don’t have many friends,” Plagg sneered, “But, I’m guessing, friends do cheer each other up, by making each other laugh and stuff, not by pushing for answers.”

Adrien couldn’t believe it. Plagg, his always hungry kwami, usually so useless when it came to encouraging talks, actually gave good advice? Shocking

“Wow, Plagg. You’re actually useful for once,” the kwami rolled his bulging green eyes, “Do you know what I should do?”

“How would I know? Didn’t I just say I don’t have many friends? I’m hungry, I’m getting more cheese.”

Adrien huffed in annoyance,’Nope the real Plagg’s back’ he thought. “Didn’t you literally just eat?”

“And? I’m hungry again, and I’m not going to be hungry.”

“Yeah, yeah, you glutton.”

Plagg began munching on some new cheese as Adrien mindlessly scrolled through his phone, mind wandering back to how he could cheer Marinette up, like Plagg had said. Usually to cheer someone up you make them laugh or smile, but are you supposed to do that when said person can’t even stand to be around you? Maybe he could cheer her up another way? Or maybe Chat Noir could cheer her up. Marinette was so different around Chat, confident and sometimes sassy, much different from Adrien, where she was scared to even talk to him.

“Are you forgetting something?” The kwami’s voice piped back up, as his mouth was, once again, stuffed with camembert.

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Adrien!” Plagg fake gasped, “How could you forget you’re beloved patrol? Usually you leave 10 minutes before just to see your precious ‘Lady’,” Plagg teased.

“Oh. You’re right. I forgot about patrol.” Adrien truly had forgotten about it, since he tried to keep Ladybug out of his mind for the time being. He really didn’t want to go however. He wasn’t ready to face her, when he knew she wasn’t even in the wrong. She had every right to reject him, but the brutality of her words are what stung.

“I think I’ll skip out tonight. Ladybug will be fine. If there’s an akuma I’ll get an alert, and then I can help her,” Adrien said gloomily.

“Oooh, lover boy. Skipping out on patrol? On seeing your lady? Are you sure you still have that undeniable love for Ladybug that you kept going on about?”

Adrien gritted his teeth at the accusation, but ultimately knew what Plagg was doing: taunting him, “No, Plagg. The love is still very much there. I just want a break,” Adrien said as calmly as possible.

“Alright, alright. I’m going to take a nap then, don’t wake me if you change your mind,” Plagg curled up into a ball and immediately fell asleep.

Adrien rolled his eyes and made his way to his computer. He clicked on the mouse, illuminating the brightly colored Ladybug filled screen. He sighed, this wasn’t helping at all. Adrien clicked on a new tab typing in ‘How to cheer a scared friend up?’

__________________

Ladybug could feel the cold breeze against her skin, her suit not doing much to protect her from the cold, causing goosebumps to form across her arms.

Marinette had finally finished her homework and was forced by Tikki to patrol just in case. She really didn’t want to, one, out of fear she would end up meeting Chat, which she was way to unprepared for at this point; and two, out of fear that he wouldn’t even bother to show up. Unfortunately for Ladybug, it was the latter, and Chat hadn’t showed up.

Ladybug was currently curled up into herself on the Eiffel Tower. Despite one half not wanting to see him, the other half of Ladybug really missed him. She hadn’t seen him in a couple days, which wasn’t unusual for them. Though a few days wasn’t a lot, Ladybug still felt guilty, and she missed her flirty partner, who’d usually sit here, on the Eiffel Tower with her, and chat with her until they were both too tired to talk. She really couldn’t blame Chat though, could she? She’d caused this, so now she had to face the consequences.

With a huff, Ladybug pushed her frigid arms down, using them to prop the rest of her body up. She did one final scan of the city out of habit, before swinging her yo-yo around a street light and heading home. Ladybug always loved running on rooftops, it made her feel like she was flying. However, she did enjoy racing with Chat across the rooftops much rather that being by herself, but that couldn’t really be helped, could it.

Marinette gracefully landed on her balcony, calling off her transformation, as she led both herself and Tikki into her room. She climbed down her ladder and sighed.

“Oh Marinette, I’m sure he’ll show up when the times right,” Tikki said, using her usual soft, motherly tone. 

“I’m not so sure about that, he never misses patrol Tikki. Never,” she uttered, walking to the bathroom and stripping her clothes off. After all that running around in hopes of seeing her partner, she was tired and sweaty. ‘Nothing a good shower can’t fix.”

She hopped into the shower, letting the warm water flow down her hair and back, all the way to her toes. It felt so good to wash all the grime of the day away. She took the time to preoccupy her mind with thoughts other than those of the feline. She wondered about Alya’s date, that had to be exciting for her best friend. Nino had booked them concert tickets to one of his favorite bands, and Alya was excited to go with him to enjoy it. Marinette wished it was that easy for her to get out, however she didn’t have any of Alya or Nino’s confidence around Adrien. She just turned into an absolute mess in front of him, but she couldn’t help it, he was just so perfect.

Marinette stepped out of the shower, he blueish hair dripping down on the bath mat under her feet as she grabbed her towel and dried her body. She put on her pajamas, an oversized t-shirt and some shorts, and walked out of her bathroom. If she was being honest it was kind of a skimpy choice of outfit, but then again, who was seeing her? Nobody, so it didn’t matter, at least that’s what she thought, until she heard the familiar knocking on her window.

Marinette tensed when she heard it. She really didn’t need Chat Noir to be at her window, here, tonight, after she had broken his heart as Ladybug. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to look him in the eye if she opened the window. So, she decided she would tell him to leave.

Marinette climbed up the ladder to her bed and peaked her head out of the trapdoor. She was met with the leather-clad boy perched along her balcony, tail swishing around in the night. She looked at how he was sitting, comfortably, yet anxious. The anxious part was probably Ladybug’s doing, and she didn’t know if him talking to Marinette would the situation any better. 

She cleared her throat, letting him know she was there. He obviously knew she was there, watching him, due to his hearing, but, oddly enough, he didn’t mind Marinette’s stare. “Chat Noir. Now’s not the best time. You should go.”

“And why’s that purrincess?” Chat hopped off the ledge, inching his way closer to the civilian. Adrien had just spent the last hour trying to learn what most kids master after elementary school: how to cheer someone up. Being isolated for so much of his life had major affects on his childhood, or lack there of, conversation being one of them. 

Adrien could start conversations, he could end them, and he had the basic concepts down for cheering people up. But basic concepts weren’t going to get him anywhere, so he turned to the internet, and as usual, it came in handy. He know knew that you shouldn’t bring up the thing the person seems upset about unless they do, which would have been helpful information, if he didn’t already pry in her life as Adrien. Chat viewed this visit as a sort of ‘second chance’, he could actually help Marinette without making her run for the hills like the usual affect he had on her.

“Because, Chat,” Marinette said firmly, “some of us have better things to do than talk to stray alley-cats,” she added a hint of playfulness to her tone to make it seem less harsh. 

Chat picked up on this, but he wasn’t about to let that hour of ‘studying’ go to waste. He was going to put his new information to use and cheer her up. 

“Oh really now, what better things do you have to do?”

He watched as she rolled her eyes, something she rarely ever did towards Adrien. They were reserved for her other friends, like Alya when she made a comment about Marinette being late, like Nino when he told a bad joke, like Chat Noir when he winked at her, but never for Adrien. Why did everyone else get to see that side of her except Adrien? That was something he planned to find out.

Marinette huffed, she could tell already by their little encounter that Chat Noir was going to be very difficult to get rid off. If she was being honest, she wouldn’t mind talking to someone, but Chat Noir was off the table since most of her problems were stemmed from him anyways.

“Well maybe I lied and don’t have better things to do, but I still want you to leave.”

Chat’s flirty grin was wiped off his face as he sensed the minor hurt in her voice. He was going to make her feel better, even if she was against it. He wouldn’t push, but he decided to be a little more persistent, because, as he read online, people in pain tend to shut other out. He didn’t want to be shut out, and he was going to make sure Marinette knew it.

“Fine. I’ll go if you really want me too. But before I go I wanted to cheer you up.”

“Why would I need cheering up?” Marinette inquired, raising an eyebrow and stepping closer.

Oh boy, Chat hadn’t thought of this. Adrien had seen Marinette sad, not Chat, so how was he going to fix this slip up. Luckily, being a superhero for a while now, he knew how to lie pretty well.

“W-Well I was patrolling the city, you know as us superhero do-,” he flexed his arm slightly with a small grin, “-and I just happened to see you running, by yourself, early in the morning. What teenager goes on runs? I just had to check on you to make sure you’re okay,” he added his signature wink to top the whole lie off.

“Really?” Marinette asked, sounding a bit confused. She was confused with Chat’s answer for two reasons. One, why was he patrolling in the morning? They usually patrolled much later in the evenings, so that was an extremely odd change. Two, how hadn’t she seen him? Had she really been that out of it that she missed the black-clad superhero in broad daylight? Despite her confusion, she did pick up on how genuine his words of concern seemed, something she was quite accustomed to as Ladybug.

“Whatever, you’re obviously not going to leave, so I guess you can come inside.”

Chat grinned at the invitation, “I knew you wouldn’t pawssibly be able to resist me.”

Marinette shivered at the cold from outside, but managed to say, “I’m only inviting you in because I’m cold.”

Now Chat didn’t completely believe this, since she seemed at least a little intrigued by his visit, but he was more than happy to oblige with her invitation, feeling a bit chilly himself.

She walked back to her trap door, landing on her bed while continuing to open the door for Chat. He slipped through the trap door, flaunting himself as he vaulted himself from her ladder to the floor. He flashed her his signature grin, as she climbed down the ladder normally rolling her eyes.

The last time Chat had been in Marinette’s room, it was purely trying to comfort her, so he hadn’t picked up on every detail in her room. Her room wasn’t mess, but it was quite small which, he assumed, made it hard to find space for everything. There were pieces of half cut fabric scattered around her floor and there was about ten different colored threads spread out on her desk.

He continued looking at her room as he examined her pink walls, and was shocked when he saw his face, well Adrien’s, plastered all over her walls. Most of the posters were modeling photos, with professional lighting, his father’s designs an uncomfortable amount of makeup smeared on his face. But some of them weren’t. Some of the posters were just Adrien smiling or laughing with the very few friends he had.

“Wow, so many posters of this one boy. Someone special?” He asked with a teasing tone, but on the inside he was a bit conflicted about why his face, well his civilian face, was all over her room. 

The modeling pictures made sense, his father was a fashion designer and Marinette obviously loved fashion. She most likely was admiring the designs Adrien was modeling. The other ones didn’t really make sense to him, but Chat decided he was looking into this too much. Her other pictures were in the photos too, so she probably put them up because of that reason.

“U-umm, not really-,” Marinette replied, playing with her fingers nervously, as she progressively got redder. ‘Shoot, I didn’t know he was going to come into my room when those were up.’

This was probably the first time she’d ever gotten flustered around him as Chat Noir. Adrien decided he probably overstepped another boundary, mentally punching himself at the fact. 

“-He’s a famous model who also happens to be in my class,” Marinette said meekly. She wasn’t lying because, technically Adrien was a model who was in her class. What Chat didn’t need to know was her enormous crush on him, which, in all honesty, if she didn’t have she would most likely reciprocate Chat’s affections. 

“His father is also a major fashion designer and a huge inspiration of mine. And the clothes his son, Adrien, models are all made by him.” Marinette composed herself from her previous flush.

So he was right. Marinette was a big fan of his fathers work. Chat tried to hide his cringe when she said ‘inspiration’. That was not the word he would use to describe his father. Stern, harsh, even unfair, were all examples of words he would use for his father, inspiring was definitely not one of them. But it wasn’t like he could just say that to Marinette and possibly crush her hopes for Gabriel Agreste, so for now, Chat decided to keep his mouth shut.

“So you want to be a fashion designer?” Adrien read that making conversation about things the other person likes was a good way to take their problems off their minds, so he was trying it. He was going to take her mind off whatever was occupying it, and he was going to cheer her up.

“Yeah, that’s what I really want to do, but I’m not sure I’m nearly talented enough to get into the industry,” Marinette stated. She knew she was pretty good at designing, she’d heard it a lot, but there’s a lot of competition in the fashion industry and she honestly wasn’t sure if she was cut out for that. She was quite competitive with people she knew, but going up against what she would call ‘talented strangers’, was nerve racking on its own. On top of that, having to produce unique, consistent designs was harder than it seemed sometimes. So while it was her dream, she wasn’t sure if it was attainable.

Adrien had seen her designs first-hand, and he could very much testify that they were amazing. He’d been around fashion for so long that he knew what quality was, and Marinette was pretty close to a professional, from what he’d seen from his father’s competition. Adrien was confident that she was very cut out for the industry, but he also did know how nervous one can get from all the pressure.

“Well then, maybe could I see some of your designs, then I could judge the purrfection?”

“You know-,” she resisted the urge to call him ‘kitty’, “-they say curiosity killed the cat.” Marinette found herself rolling her eyes at him for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. 

“But you know, they also say satisfaction brought it back,” Chat smirked

“Ugh. I guess I could show you some, but do you know anything about fashion,” she raised her eyebrow with a playful look displayed on her face.

He chuckled. If only you knew

“You’d be surprised how fashionable this cat is,” he said nonchalantly.

Marinette snorted, “You literally wear a black leather suit. That’s it. How is that super fashionable?”

Chat mocked a scoffing expression, taking his hand to his face in fake displeasure.“What are you talking about?” 

He failed to suppress his grin any longer, “I’ll have you know leather suits are very fashionable.”

“Like you’d know,” Marinette teased.

“Once again, purrincess, you’d be surprised by my many talents. But do I get to see the designs now?”

“I suppose I’ll let you look at a few,” she made her way to her desk where her sketchbook was set. Chat followed her over to her desk, observing the pile of homework besides the sketchbook.

“Here,” she handed it to him. 

Chat delicately opened the sketchbook. He flipped to the first page, admiring the attention to detail she put into her sketch. It was a beautiful outfit, a frilly skirt, which had a darker blue trim, while the rest was an ombré looking fade of blue. It had ruffles and little sequins draw on, and was peppered with little notes about fabrics and brands. 

Adrien was mesmerized by everything about the sketch, he continued flipping through the sketches, each one more detailed and beautiful that the previous. She had drawn everything from ruffles to satin to leather. While browsing, Adrien kept coming across a little marking on each design, it looked like a graceful cursive ‘M’. Oddly enough, Adrien found it looking extremely familiar but he couldn’t tell why.

“What’s this?” He asked her, pointing to the little marking at the bottom of the sketch of a long dress he was currently looking at.

Marinette peered over his shoulder, looking at what he was pointing at. “Oh that’s just my signature. I put it on all my sketches so that I don’t forget to put in on actual clothes-,“ she walked over to her closet pulling out a dress from a hanger, “-see,” she pointed to the little marking on the edge of the dress.

Chat delicately took the dress out of her hands, running his gloved hand over the small indentation of her signature. “Smart. This way no one can steal your ideas,” he said, still examining the purple dress she had handed him. It was a small short sleeved dress, with a built-in black belt attached.

“Yeah, exactly, it’s to avoid someone stealing my work.”

Adrien couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d seen that little marking before, but it just wasn’t coming to his head. Chat handed her back the dress, his vision shifting back to the page he had flipped open on her sketchbook. “These are amazing, Marinette. I don’t know what you were saying about not being good enough, they’re really good.”

Marinette grineed slightly, “Ah, and is this your expert fashion sense talking?” She teased, quirking an eyebrow.

“Why yes. I’ll have you know, I know much about fashion,” Chat responded.

Marinette giggled slightly, something Adrien found himself wanting to hear more of, “Not this again. You definitely don’t have fashion expertise, but I’m not going to argue anymore, I’ll just let you believe what you want.”

Chat brought his hand to his forehead dramatically, “It wounds me that you think so low of me.” This made Marinette giggle again, causing a big smile to etch its way onto Chat’s face.

They continued joking around and giggling for around for a while. Adrien found it natural to talk with her, it was easy, it wasn’t forced, like with some people, and he didn’t feel the need to impress her (though he did try), which was comforting in its own way. Adrien felt completely at ease when fooling around with her, and he prayed that maybe she would treat his civilian form a bit like this.

“Well purrincess, as fun as this has been, but I should probably be leaving to get my beauty sleep.”

“Yeah,” Marinette said, stifling a yawn, “You’re right, it’s pretty late.”

Chat got up from the chair he had been spinning in and climbed up her ladder, aware of her trailing behind him. It was even colder than before, so he didn’t want to keep her out for too long, “This is farewell, kind maiden,” he bowed. Before taking his departure, Chat, ever so carefully, brought her knuckles to his lips as he brushed a quick peck on them.

Marinette pulled away and scoffed slightly, “Yeah, yeah, bye you alley cat.”

He extended his baton, using it to vault himself off of her roof, and eventually out of Marinette’s sight.


	8. The Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some cute Adrienette? Sign me up. Also thank you so much for the kudos :)

"Adrieeeeen-," Plagg groaned for what seemed like the hundredth time, "-what are you doing? You've been destroying your closet forever, and I'm hungryyyyy!"

Adrien briefly looked up from the pile of clothes he was currently rummaging through to shoot his kwami a glare, "You're never not hungry Plagg, there's cheese in that drawer-," he pointed to the drawer, his tone progressively getting more and more frustrated, "-and I'm looking for something important."

Plagg simply ignored his tone, hastily flying over to the drawer and picking up his beloved cheese, "Well, what's this important thing you're looking for?"

"I thought I recognized Marinette's signature from somewhere, I just don't know where," he paused, continuing to rummage through the pile of clothes that was currently sitting in the middle of his room, "Where is it!"

"Where's what, Adrien? And why is there a pile of clothes in the middle of your bedroom." Nathalie simply stated, unamused by the mess currently taking up most of the blonde's floor space.

Adrien hadn't even realized that Plagg had zipped away into a hiding place, or that Nathalie had even come in. He didn't really know what to say to her, since he himself didn't even know what he was looking for. "Uhm, I-"

"If you're looking for that scarf of yours, I told the cleaners to wash it since it's getting cold out and you've been wearing it more frequently," she uttered blankly, feeling a pang of guilt as she recalled the events of the scarf situation, but pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind.

"Hmm? My scarf?" Adrien immediately brightened at the realization. He was sure that if he was transformed at this moment his black cat ears would've literally perked up. "Oh, the one father got me?"

"Y-yes, it should be done right now, I'll have the staff bring it up." Nathalie moved her vision to her tablet, avoiding eye contact, which Adrien either didn't seem to notice, or didn't comment on it.

"No, don't worry. I'll go get it now." Adrien didn't like people doing everything for him. It was what he was used to, but that didn't necessarily mean he agreed with it. He wanted to be independent and have what little freedom he could. Chat Noir was a great way to express his pent up loneliness and closure, but he was going to do what he could to get his civilian self some freedom too.

"Alright, just make sure you're not late for school. And clean up your mess please" With that, Nathalie tuned on her heel promptly and left the room, leaving Adrien alone with the mountain of clothes.

Once she'd left, Plagg flew out from his previous hiding spot, nibbling on crumbly cheese, "Jeez, kid. Why do you even have so many clothes, you where like the same thing every day."

"Don't drop that smelly cheese everywhere, or you have to clean it up."

Plagg stuck out his tongue in a childish manner, "You have cleaners for a reason you know."

Adrien simply rolled his eyes at the comment, and started to shovel his clothes back into the drawers of his massive closet. He really didn't know why this was becoming such a big deal, but he really wanted to know why the marking seemed almost familiar, like it'd been under the tip of his nose this whole time, but also out of reach.

When Adrien was done putting (more like shoving) his clothes back into his closet, he grabbed his bag and made his way to the laundry room.

Obviously he'd been in there before, it was his house after all. But he was pretty unfamiliar with it, so he wasn't really sure where to look for his scarf — until he saw it, the beautiful blue reflecting off the light from the small window. It was neatly folded and sitting next to another pile of clothes.

"Kid. Really. Why do you have so many clothes," Plagg asked rather rhetorically as he zoomed through the stacks of neatly folded clothes.

"I don't know," Adrien said, marching over to the pile of clothes and picking out the soft scarf. He gently ran his fingers over it, but stopped once he found a semi- rigid area. Adrien flipped the scarf over so that he could examine whatever he just ran his fingers through.

He then saw a marking, not just any marking or signature, this was Marinette's signature. Instantly Adrien's head was swirling with questions. Why is Marinette's signature on my scarf? Did my father buy it from her? Why didn't she say anything?

He was confused. Confused about why his father took credit for something someone else made; thought there was the possibility he bought it from her, but why would he? His father had no reason to, he was a designer for God's sake! He was also confused why Marinette had been so silent about the whole situation. He'd worn the scarf plenty of times to school, he'd practically flaunted it, seeming so happy that his father supposedly remembered a thoughtful gift.

But no. Adrien didn't think that his father purchased the scarf from her. He had no reason to, none at all. His father barely knew Marinette, it wasn't very likely that he would have just bought one of her works to gift to his son, would he? Adrien wasn't sure at all, he was so confused, but he knew for a fact that Marinette had made this scarf —his favorite scarf too— and that he needed to confront her about it, or at least get her to explain what actually happened, that is if she wouldn't turn into a flustered mess around him.

Adrien rushed through breakfast, making sure he grabbed just enough cheese to satisfy his kwami, before waving Nathalie a last goodbye, and bolting out the door into the car. He planned out exactly what he would say to her during the car ride to school, he was going to be as nice as possible and not push for answers. Adrien hopped out of the car immediately after it stopped, earning him a glare from Gorilla. He ran towards the school and bumped into an unsuspecting Nino listening to his headphones.

"Dude. Ow. Why are you in such a rush?"

"Sorry-," Adrien muttered with a sigh, he was certain that if he wasn't Chat Noir the pace he'd sprinted towards the school at would have caused him to be out of breath, "-looking for Marinette."

Nino's eyebrows raised at Adrien's response. Alya had told him about Marinette's crush on him —plus it was pretty obvious to everyone but Adrien apparently— but he'd been sworn to secrecy. Alya had told him not to interfere, so he wasn't going to, but that didn't mean he couldn't help Marinette out a bit, especially since Nino was Adrien's best friend.

"Marinette, huh, why are you looking for her," he asked with a teasing tone. Nino attempted to contain his chuckle as the features on Adrien's face contorted to a small scowl. 

"I need to ask her something."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, today I found her signature on the scarf my father gave me for my birthday—," he pointed to the scarf tightly fastened against his neck, "— and I wanted to know why it was there."

"Oh," came Nino's response. Alya had also told him about the scarf, but had also told him that Marinette didn't want Adrien to necessarily know she was the one who actually gifted it to him if that meant Adrien was happy. Nino wasn't really sure what to do, but he knew he couldn't just tell him the truth, that was for Marinette to do, so he decided he would just play it cool.

"Well it's a shame you ran here early for that—," he said and Adrien had a confused expression on his face, "— c'mon dude, you know Marinette, she's always late."

Nino was right. Marinette was usually late, so why Adrien had rushed to school he didn't know why, but he blamed it on his confusion. He would just have to ask her when she did get there, which he hoped was soon, because he wasn't sure if he wanted his questions to go unanswered for a long time.  
_______________

Adrien knew it, this was his chance to ask her. 

It was lunch time now, and the group of friends had decided to go to the park for lunch, seeing as it was a bit warmer today. Adrien had tried to talk to Marinette before lunch but at first, she was late, as expected, so he couldn't talk to her before school. Second, he didn't want to bother her in class, or worse risk getting them both in trouble, that would not fly well with his father; and third, between classes she reverted to her shy self, the one completely opposite of what Chat Noir had seen.

They were currently all sprawled out against the cold grass of the park, each lost in their own world. Alya was huddled up next to Nino on her phone, probably checking the Ladyblog; Nino was listening to music with his headphones; and Marinette was sketching a design. Adrien saw this as a perfect chance to question her, and he hoped Nino and Alya were too preoccupied to listen in, but he knew that was never the case.

"Uhm, Marinette?" 

She looked up at him slowly with her big eyes, as the light reflected on her face, making the little freckles that dotted all over her face stand out. "Y-yes Adrien?"

There was the stuttering again, but he supposed she couldn't help it, so he overlooked it for the moment. "So, I was just looking at this scarf—," he pointed to his scarf again, "—and uhm, I never realized it had a signature on it—," he watched as she gulped, which confirmed that she knew about what was going on. He didn't want to beat around the bush, so Adrien decided to get to the point, as he asked, a little loud than intended, "Did you make this scarf?"  
Her expression was all the confirmation Adrien needed.

Marinette stared at him wide eyed, her bright blue eyes frantically searching his own green ones. 

"U-uhm, why would you think that?"

Nino and Alya were watching their friends' little encounter. It wasn't that they were being nosy, their friends weren't even attempting to be quiet, so they thought it would be best to listen in. 

Alya was actually glad the topic of the scarf had come up. She knew how much effort and time Marinette put into it, and having it stolen from her and credited by Adrien's father of all people had to be a little disheartening. Marinette had played it off like it was fine, but deep down Alya knew it must've hurt to see Adrien wear her best friend's design and not even know it.

"Well, for starters, my father usually sticks to the same old fancy pen—," he rubbed the back of his neck and forced a light chuckle to hopefully lighten the mood, "—and also, your signature is on it," he stated sheepishly.

Marinette gulped again and went a reddish pink color from the tips of her ears all the way down to her neck. She didn't expect Adrien to find out about the scarf. Ever. He looked so overjoyed about it being from his father, that she didn't have the heart to rip that right from him, so she decided not to tell him. 

Marinette had definitely not realized that Adrien even recognized her signature. Not that she hid the signature from everyone, but she didn't go showing it off —that would defeat the purpose. She didn't know what to do, and realized all too late that she was sitting here gaping like an idiot.

"I- uhm, y-yeah," she breathed nervously, "I m-made the scarf." Marinette gathered that he must've been somewhat confused about her statement, and was about to speak up about it when she was cut off by Adrien.

"Why did my father say it was from him? Did he buy it from you," he asked eagerly. Adrien had almost whole heartedly ruled off that his father bought it from her, but he still felt it was necessary to ask.

"No," she replied simply, trying to calm her still very deep blush.

So Adrien was right, his father didn't buy it, so why did he claim it as his own? Why did he go through the trouble to lie to his son?

"Then why did he say it was his birthday gift?" He tried to soften his tone but it still came out a little irritated, which he didn't want in fear of scaring Marinette away right when he was finally getting his answers after waiting half the day (it wasn't long, but he was impatient).

"U-uhm," she stuttered looking to Alya for some sort of assistance; but her friend simply just gave her a knowing look.

"It's okay Marinette, seriously, you can tell me what happened, I'm not going to get angry or hurt or anything." That last part was a lie. He knew it was going to sting knowing his father didn't actually get him the scarf he cherished so dearly, but for Marinette's sake he needed to put on a brave face.

"Uhm, so basically, yes, I made the scarf, and I was planning to give it to you, b-but then there was a mix up and you thought that your father gave it to you, and you just looked so happy—"

"Marinette"

"—so I didn't want to ruin that for you because you seemed to like the scarf, and—"

"Marinette"

"—I understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore, or you don't want to be friends because I lied, oh god, and now I'm rambling, I'm so sorry Adrien, I—"

Marinette finally stopped being a rambling mess when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her frame. Her brain nearly short circuited at how the events had just played out. Adrien Agreste was hugging her. ADRIEN AGRESTE WAS HUGGING HER. This not a drill. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. She was trying to tell her brain not to meltdown, and was being very unsuccessful, as she processed what was happening.

His arms were wrapped around her neck as they lightly pushed her face into his chest, his very hard chest, she noted. His face rested gently on her head and she could hear his heartbeat due to their vicinity.

"Marinette," Adrien said, this time nearly as quiet as a whisper, "I'm not mad at you. I don't want to stop being friends. I actually wanted to thank you for the scarf, it's my favorite."

Adrien knew this was wrong. Half of his brain was screaming at him to let her go, trying to persuade him that this was not what friends are supposed to do, and that he should be mad at her for lying. But the other half, the half he knew he would ultimately listen to, told him no. It told him not to let the bluenette go, because friends do hug. It told him not to be mad at her for lying, but instead grateful that she cared enough to put in the effort to make him something. It told him to thank her, so that's what he did. A little part of him was hurt because his father had lied to him about something he obviously cherished so deeply, but he decide it was neither the time nor place to wallow in self pity.

He squeezed his arms around Marinette just a little tighter and brought his voice down so that it was a whisper, "Thank you, Marinette. Thank you for making me the scarf, and thank you for trying to let my father take the credit for it. It means more than you could ever know, and I'm so glad to have a friend like you."

That snapped Marinette from her daze of being wrapped in Adrien's arms. "Friend like you." She didn't want to be just another friend he could playfully hug, she really didn't. She wanted everything but that. She wanted to be his person, his safe place, the person he could come to with his problems, the person he could come to when he needed to laugh. She wanted late night talks with him, she wanted study dates with him. She wanted so badly for him to feel the same way that she did, for him to care about her the same way she did. But if that was all she was getting, then she was going to take it.

With what little confidence she managed to gather, Marinette brought her arms up from where'd they been resting awkwardly at her sides, and returned the hug. She felt him tense slightly because of the movement, but chose to ignore it. Marinette couldn't believe it, she was hugging him, and it felt like a dream come true, heck, it was a dream come true. She wanted to savor this moment forever so that she could replay it over and over again whenever she wanted, but decided that wasn't very plausible. Marinette pulled her head back slightly from Adrien's firm chest, her arms still gripping his firm frame, as she smiled softly at the bright green orbs staring down at her, with a look of happiness mixed with a slight sense of uneasiness.

Adrien stared down at the wide-eyed girl in front of him. He never noticed how many tiny freckles she had, and he felt the sudden urge to count them all. He was glad she managed to break through her barriers of nervousness to hug him back, and he was even happier when felt her arms tighten around him a bit, and heard her say, "You're welcome."


	9. The Study Group

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so so much for all the kudos and hits, it honestly means so much to me! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. In case anyone wants to know, i have an instagram @kindaartsy222 and a tik tok @chatnoirsimp7

It had been a couple days from the "magical hug" as Marinette described it. She called it this because ever since that hug she'd gotten somewhat better luck. 

Though she was Ladybug, the literal embodiment of luck, her civilian form normally wasn't especially lucky, she'd usually over sleep, which would disrupt her whole day. However, ever since that magical hug, Marinette had gotten pretty good luck, she'd actually gotten up at a reasonable time due to the lack of akuma attacks and she actually made it school on time. 

This was a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it was great that people weren't getting akumatized and the super heroine was getting a break. On the other, she missed Chat more than words could describe and she needed to apologize as soon as possible.

She didn't know why Hawkmoth had been so inactive, but Marinette was worried he was planning something. This caused her guard to be up a little more than usual. She would pay extra attention to people expressing negative emotions, and she prayed they wouldn't get akumatized, and so far, that was working.

~

It was another day at school for Marinette, she was sitting at her desk doodling, waiting for the teacher to come in. Seeing as she was uncharacteristically early for once, there weren't many other people in class, other than a few students including Nathaneal; whom she'd waved to before sitting down.

"Am I seeing things, or is Marinette Dupain-Cheng early for once?" Alya's voice boomed as she excitedly walked into the classroom, taking her seat next to the bluenette.

"Alya, it's not like I'm always late or anything." Lies, complete and absolute lies, of course Marinette knew she was late the majority of the time, she thought maybe she could fool her best friend into thinking that too.

"Uhm girl, I've literally been worried about your grade from the amount of tardies you have. You are literally always late," she sneered lightly at the bluenette, who just huffed ignored her and went back to sketching.

"Ok, so you know how you're an absolute genius and decided to make your and Adrien's study date into a group thing—"

Marinette hummed in response, once again ignoring the shameless comments of her best friend.

"—well I was wondering if tomorrow would be a good day to study for the project, since it's a weekend and all. Plus it's pretty close to the date of the test, so it's a good day to study," Alya paused, wiggling her eyebrows at Marinette, who was now looking at her. "It's also a great time for you and blondie to get some quality time together."

"Alya!" Marinette whisper shouted, "You better not think about leaving me alone with him, I'll become a stuttering mess as usual."

"Marinette. It'll be fine, okay," Alya stated reassuringly, "-just remember he's a person, a normal human being, not some god like figure that you have made up in your head."

"Yeah, but he sure looks like a god, those abs," she mumbled absentmindedly, not noticing the wide eyed look her friend was giving her.

Alya gasped loudly, "MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG, WHEN DID YOU SEE HIS ABS?!"

Oh. That's right. With everything that happened Marinette forgot to tell her best friends the details of her and Adrien's "studying."

Marinette glanced up at the clock, noting she had a good 10 minutes until class officially started. She spent those next 10 minutes telling Alya every single detail that included Adrien from the past days. 

She started with telling her about the bruising; Marinette knew Adrien told her not to mention it, but she knew that Alya wouldn’t tell anyone if she was asked not to, so she trusted her. She told Alya about how she ran into him while running, which got Marinette questioned about why she was running in the first place. As usual, Marinette deflected the question with an excuse that she needed to clear her mind, and thankfully Alya didn’t push for answers.

By the time the girls had just about ended their conversation, the rest of the class started filtering in with the teacher. Adrien and Nino walked in together and took their usual seats in front of the girls.

Once they were seated, Alya tapped Nino’s shoulder making him and Adrien both turn around to face the girls. Marinette blushed yet again at her crush, who was know looking right at her with his bright smile.

“Marinette said it would be fine if we have that study thing at her house tomorrow-“

Marinette chimed in, “Does that work for you guys?” This is was obviously aimed at Adrien and his father’s strict parenting tactics. She tried not to sound desperate, but Marinette wasn’t quite sure if it came on like that. After her talk with Alya, Marinette had determined that she was actually quite excited for Adrien to come over, granted she still didn’t want to be alone with him in fear of making a fool of herself.

“I asked Nathalie about it a couple days ago, but she said she needed an exact time and location before she would agree to anything,” Adrien smiled at the others, “I’m sure I can convince her to let me come over, she knows you guys are trustworthy friends.”

With that Alya and Nino smiled back at Adrien, Nino giving him a thumbs up before turning back around in his seat. Marinette felt her face heat up at “trustworthy”, even though she’d learn to hate the word that came after it, she like that Adrien trusted her, and it brought her a sort of pride she hadn’t felt before.

The class droned on dully, but Marinette wasn’t paying attention. She was rather thinking about how much progress she actually made with Adrien. Sure it was all baby steps, small little things that probably meant nothing to him outside of friendship, but to Marinette it meant everything. Adrien had showed her he cared, he asked about how she was doing, and though it seemed like a friendly manner, Marinette prayed that maybe he started to feel something — anything for her. Even calling her his best friends would be enough to have her head spinning in circles, because that meant she was special to him, and that’s all she wanted.

The rest of the day felt like a blur to Marinette, she’d walk into her classes, sit down, and then fantasize about Adrien. She tried to be more subtle so that there wouldn’t be a repeat of last time, but she felt her mind being pulled to something Alya said. “He’s a person. A normal human being, not some god like figure.”

Though Alya said this, Marinette couldn’t help but feel nervous about the whole situation. Her crush —her very famous, model crush— was going over to her house just because she asked him to. It made her stomach twist and turn at the thought that Adrien was coming over to study just for her, everyone knows he didn’t necessarily need it. That said, she was also excited, she really liked to believe she was making some progress, and that made her happy. Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a tug on her arm.

“Come on girl, not again. Schools over, you should really consider not spacing out though, I don’t think anyone noticed, but we don’t want a repeat of last time.”

“Wait? Schools over?”

“Yes Mari, you were completely out of it, so I had a feeling you didn’t realise class ended. Try to go home and relax, I know your nervous about the studying thing tomorrow, but it’ll be fine.”

“Yeah you’re right,” she hesitated, “but what if everything goes wrong tomorrow?”

“Oh Marinette, you’ll be fine.”

With that the two girls walked out of class together, waving each other goodbyes at the stairs before going in their respective directions.

When Marinette got home she zoomed up the stairs, she had a mission. This time she would not caught by surprise, she knew Adrien was coming so she could take all the posters down in advance. 

She was in her room taking down the posters carefully, they were some of her most prize possessions obviously, when a red blur flew in front of her face.

“Marinette when are you going to finish your gift for Chat?”

“Oh shoot.”

Marinette had forgotten about that. She knew she needed to make it up to Chat, plus she really wanted to, but she didn’t just want to apologize. She wanted to make him something, to show he was greatly appreciated by her, which he was. He was her partner in crime, her best friend, she loved Chat, even if it wasn’t in the way he wanted.

“Ugh, I totally forgot about that, I think I can maybe finish it tonight.” 

She peered over at her desk where the green mittens sat. She decided she would settle on making Chat mittens, and even though his superhero persona already had gloves, this was more for his civilian self. She wanted him to know that she cared, so she was giving him some neon green gloves. They were going to have little black paw prints at the base of the gloves, and Marinette opted out of putting her signature, just in case Chat decided to put the pieces together.

Obviously Marinette knew how much Chat wanted to reveal identities, but she simply wasn’t ready. Between her own insecurities, driven by the fact that she couldn’t possibly always have the Ladybug effect on people, and her desire to keep things professional between them, due to her love for Adrien, Marinette just wasn’t prepared for identities to be revealed. Was she curious who the kind hearted boy behind the mask is? Of course, but she wasn’t going to let curiosity ruin their partnership.

“What about patrol?” Tikki asked. She was happy that Marinette had a plan to resolve their fight because it always hurt her to see her Ladybug and Chats fight.

“I’ll let Chat handle it for tonight, it’ll be worth it when he gets his present hopefully.”

“Okay. How are you feeling about tomorrow, are you excited Adrien’s coming over,” asked Tikki, almost it a cooing tone.

“More nervous than excited—,” stated Marinette as she picked up the green thread to finish up the mittens, “—I really don’t want to embarrass myself again.”

“Remember what Alya said, he’s just a normal classmate, so you’ll be fine.”

“I hope so.”

~

It hurt Chat more than he wanted over how much he depended on the spotted heroine to brighten his day. 

He was currently patrolling the city for Akumas, alone, revising his apology over and over in his head. Once some of his angry feelings had cleared Chat realized what he’d done to Ladybug —he’d pressured her. If there was one thing he knew about his partner, it was that she couldn’t think too straight under a lot of pressure. She would usually have a mini freak out if they were faced with a significantly stronger akuma than they were used to, and Chat was always there to support her. Chat gathered it probably embarrassed her to crack under pressure, so he never brought it up, instead he told puns to help her get back into the grooves, and most of the time it worked.

This time however, it was his fault. He had to apologize to her, he’s pushed too far and crossed too many lines that she wasn’t ready for. He let his own jealousy control his mind, and doing so made his words come out as harsh, angry, and spiteful, when in reality all it was was hurt, pain, and sadness. However, Chat came to the conclusion that in the end it was his fault.

He’d just put too much pressure on Ladybug, demanding an answer which she knew would hurt him. He knew he had every right to be selfish and ignore her, because in the end, he’d just gotten his heart broken. But he felt the need to apologize and make her understand that if she wasn’t okay with sharing information then that was fine. He didn’t like the conclusion he’d come to, but he didn’t have any other choice; Chat missed her too much, he never wanted to feel this pain again.

He missed Ladybug. He missed the playful eye roll she would do when she pretended she hated his lame pun. He missed the look of victory when they defeated an akuma. He missed the talks they had on patrol, getting to know each other more and more, little by little. He missed her fist bumps and her warmth. He missed her and knew that he wanted— no needed— to apologize and make things go back to the way they were, even if his heart still felt a pang of jealousy over the whole situation.

To say he was disappointed that she didn’t come was an understatement. It wasn’t like he didn’t expect this; he really did considering he snapped and made her run away. But some part of him had hoped she’d come for patrol, even just for a bit, but that sliver of hope was crushed when he’d reached the end of patrol.

Chat had circled the city twice more than he needed to, hoping and praying that maybe Ladybug would show, but she never did, and it hurt. There wasn’t really anything he could do, if she wanted to come she would’ve, and it pained him that she didn’t.

Then it hit him, he’d skipped the last patrol like an absolute idiot (a hurt idiot, but still an idiot), and he was mad that she hadn’t showed up to this one. Of course she wouldn’t have! He’d blown her off before, so she had no reason to want to see him. 

Chat felt his fists clench around the stem of the rose he’d been carrying. He didn’t really have any choice but to go home and wallow in more self pity. As he vaulted on top of roofs to get home, Chat felt himself wishing for the first time that an akuma would pop up soon, so he could make things right with his lady.

~  
Next Day:

Luckily for her, Marinette managed to finish the mittens she made and was very proud of the outcome. They looked pretty professional if she had to say so herself, plus Tikki had given her numerous complements about them. But while she was excited to give them to Chat (and obviously terrified about their relationship), she was also excited about the study date for today.

After a good night’s rest, Marinette had determined that she was actually really looking forward to spending some quality time with her best friends, especially a particular blonde. She’d cleaned her room so it looked organized enough, and she’d hidden the mittens so she wasn’t questioned about them.

Marinette’s parents already knew her friends were coming over, and being the loving,sweet parents they were, they had prepared tons of snacks. They had pizzas, chips, cookies, and of course, macaroons. Sabine had made Marinette promise that instead of playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III she needed actual studying to take place because the exams were coming up and all the kids needed to do well. Obviously Marinette had agreed, with the exception that they were allowed to play a little video games.

Now Marinette was absentmindedly scrolling through her phone waiting for her friends to come over. Soon she heard the doorbell ring, and she excitedly went to answer it.

When she opened the door she was greeted with both Nino and Alya, smiles on their faces and backpacks in hand. 

“Hey guys, come in,” Marinette said, gesturing for them to come in.

“Thanks dudette, we brought some video games too in case we want to take a break.”

“That sounds great, you can put them over there—,” she pointed to the table in front of the tv, “—my parents should be in the back—,” her voice droned off and got a bit quieter, “—-do, do you know if Adrien’s coming?”

“Hmm. He texted me and said he couldn’t make it.”

Oh no. This wasn’t what she wanted. Marinette had spent so much time building up her confidence towards this day that she forgot that he may not even come. She really wanted Adrien to come. She wanted him to have fun with her like normal kids do. Marinette knew that with his sheltered lifestyle he missed out on a lot of typical childhood experiences, so she wanted to be there to hopefully make up for some of what was lost. But if he wasn’t even coming then what was the point?

Both Nino and Alya watched as their friend’s expression visibly dropped into a more pouting look, with her eyebrows furrowed together, arms drooping at her sides.

“Oh.” It was all she could manage to get out.

“Oh my god Mari, you’re so hopeless, he’s just running a tiny bit late, he’s still coming—.”

Marinette’s previous pout was replaced with a scowl almost immediately, as she crossed of her arms over her chest and shot deadly glares at both Alya and Nino.

“—you should’ve seen your face. Come on, are we really that bad company that you’re only looking forward to blondy coming?” Alya teased, but then yelped when Marinette’s hand swatted her arm playfully as they made their way over to the couch to sit down.

“Hey, what was that for?”

“For scaring me, I thought he really wasn’t coming.”

“Come on Marinette, you know he wouldn’t miss spending time with you,” said Nino with a smirk, before sitting down on the couch.

Marinette felt herself blush slightly at his words, because what if he was correct? He was Adrien’s best friend after all, so he would know how much Adrien actually wanted to come.

Marinette was stopped from responding to the smug look on her friends’ faces as she heard her doorbell right yet again. Now she was panicking because she knew who was on the other side. Adrien.

“Go get the door girl.”

“Right. The door. Because I have to open it to let him in.”

“Yeah you do, so you should start going now before he decides to leave,” Alya said sarcastically, hoping that her statement prodded her friend to actually open the door and not just stand here like a gaping fish.

Marinette walked over to the door again and reached for the knob, fingers trembling slightly. She turned the knob and came face to face with the picture perfect smiling blonde. He looked as bright as ever, wearing his signature ”model” look, his blonde bangs falling ever so perfectly over his forehead.

“Hey Marinette,” Adrien said hesitantly and waved, observing the bluenette’s usual flustered reaction. He thought he’d made a bit of progress, but he supposed he was wrong because Marinette seemed as nervous as ever to meet him.

Marinette heard Alya clearing her throat from behind her, pushing her to say something—anything, so that she wasn’t just gaping at the boy who was standing in front of her.

“O-oh, h-hey Adrien, c-come in,” she gestured him over to the couch.

“Thanks!” Adrien was trying to seem enthusiastic to maybe make Marinette feel more comfortable, and hopefully make her come out of the little shell she puts herself when he’s around. He did as she said and walked to the couch where he was greeted by Nino and Adrien.

“Marinette, are your friends here,” shouted Sabine from the kitchen as she hung up her apron on the wooden hook.

“Yeah Maman, they’re all here.”

Sabine walked out from the kitchen holding a little tray of chocolate chip cookies.

“Hi Ms. Dupain, thanks for having me.”

“Adrien, didn’t we talk about this, you can call me Sabine, and it’s always a pleasure to have you over,” Sabine smiled sweetly at the boy’s sweetness.

“Ah, right, sorry, Sabine,” he stated nervously.

“Well, it’s good that you’re all here, I have snacks,” she glanced over to the teens whose eyes seemed to widen at the sight of the treats.

“This is why I love your house Marinette, you’ve got the best food,” Nino said, reaching for the cookies that were now placed on the table.

Sabine chuckled at the comment and Marinette feigned annoyance while also grabbing some cookies and chatting. All four of the teens gobbled their cookies way quicker than they should’ve, but Sabine didn’t miss the longing look Adrien was giving the almost empty plate.

Now that she was looking at him, the blonde was very skinny, skinnier than a normal teenager should be. She knew he was a model, and knew modeling required being very fit, but he looked almost too skinny. Sabine was almost positive she would be able to see his ribs.

“Adrien, you can go ahead and have another one, or two, there’s no rules here,” Sabine said, trying to hide the worry in her voice over the thoughts that the boy may not be eating enough. 

This brought Adrien out of the playful conversation that was taking place, as he glanced up at the older woman, “Don’t worry, I’m full,” he said, trying to sound convincing, but was betrayed by his own body when a low growl-like sound was heard from his stomach. 

The rumble of his stomach made Sabine give him a knowing motherly look as she pushed the plate of cookies to him. “Eat as much as you’d like, and if you ever need food —or are even the slightest bit hungry—our doors will always be open.”

Adrien had a sheepish smile on his face now. He really didn’t know how one person could make him feel so warm inside. Sabine made it seemed like she cared for him, and he missed that, he missed the feeling of knowing someone cared for him, he missed the attention of a motherly figure, because as much as he tried to make it enough, his father simply didn’t care (or show that he cared) enough.

“Thank you, Mrs- uh- Sabine.”

“Of course, now eat, a growing boy like you needs food, and you look awfully skinny-,” Sabine finally admitted, “—are you getting enough to eat at home?”.

“Yes ma’am, don’t worry I get enough to eat.”

That wasn’t a complete lie, but it was still a lie. For a model? Yes, Adrien was getting the right amount to eat, even though that amount of food wasn’t enough. For a superhero who ran around the city almost every night? He definitely wasn’t getting enough food, and he had to suffer the consequences. Adrien often felt hungry, but at this point it was a recurring emotion, he was used to it. Still, feeling that someone cared made Adrien’s heart swell up in adoration for Marinette’s family.

“Right, but my offer still stands,” Sabine said, giving the blonde a little wave before going back into the kitchen.

Adrien found himself munching on the delectably gooey chocolate chip cookie as he rejoined the conversation that was going on. Before he could talk however, he was interjected by one of the prettiest sounds to ever grace his ears, Marinette’s giggles. 

Her nose was scrunched up as she was giggling at what seemed to be a funny joke the other two were telling her. The light was shining oh so perfectly on her face, almost reflecting all the little freckles that dotted her face. Adrien caught himself staring too late, because by the time he’d snapped out of it, the giggling had stopped and Alya, Nino, and Marinette were all looking at him.

“Dude, you good? You kinda spaced out on us.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, “Yeah sorry. Are we going to study now?” He asked, trying to avoid the conversation. However, it didn’t go unnoticed by him that Marinette was blushing a lot, meaning he was probably caught staring at her. 

“Yeah,” Marinette piped up, “w-we should probably get to work.”

The teens all made their way up to Marinette’s room, Adrien noting the vibrant pink color, that almost perfectly suited Marinette. He also did note the lack of posters occupying her walls, but chose not to comment on it. 

They all spread out over her floor, notes scattered around them as they attempted to retain some of the information in their books.

The next hour they spent diligently working away, with each person helping the other with a subject they were particularly good at. At one point Alya suggested they break off into pairs, nudging Nino to get him to agree with her plan. Marinette knew what Alya was doing and sent particularly cold look to the red head. She couldn’t do much more because of Adrien being right in front of her.

“Sure,” the blonde said hesitantly, observing the bluenette’s strange expression, “what are the groups?”

Alya smirked triumphantly to Marinette, who was gritting her teeth, “Nino and I will work together, we’re struggling with pretty much the same things.” Nino knew what his girlfriend was doing, and he was just as willing to participate if it meant anything for their ship to sail. 

“O-okay,” Marinette said meekly as she shifted around to where Adrien was, while Alya shifted closer to Nino.

The studying went pretty smoothly from there on out. Despite her usual stuttering, Adrien found it rather fun to be around Marinette. It was useful having study time with other people, rather than to be cooped up in his room, forced to recite his notes to Plagg who would just fly out of the room after a point. 

After another half an hour or so, the teens felt their motivation to look at their boring notes dwindling. They were losing focus, and classes started merging together and mixing up their minds.

“Ok dudes, I don’t know about you, but I’m done. Do you guys wanna play some Ultimate Mecha Strike?” Nino asked hopefully, dropping his overused pencil and letting it roll against Marinette’s floor. 

Marinette perked up at the mention of her favorite video game, and also dropped her pencil, jumping into a running stance, so quickly that Adrien didn’t know what happened. The pigtailed girl squealed a ‘yes’ out, before sprinting down the stairs to go get the game.

Alya and Nino chucked, and Adrien just watched the door swung open as Marinette ran back in with the games and what looked like a mountain of snacks piled up on top of each other . She had a bright smiling expression on her face as she extended one of the controllers out to Nino saying, “You’re going down.”

“Not a chance,” came his retort.

Once again, Adrien found himself watching as the previous shy girl faded away into one of laughter and confidence. For some reason it hurt him just a bit that he wasn’t the one to put that smile there.

She plugged in the video game and handed the other two controllers to Alya and Adrien. This was still all new for Adrien, he was barely allowed to go out to friends’ houses so he was still quite unprepared for all of this. He tried his best to fit in though, picking up the controller and smiling confidently.

He soon learnt that there was absolutely no point whatsoever in being confident for video games around Marinette. She won every single match. Every single one. He didn’t get a single win, at all, and he was actually good at this game. He saw a different side to Marinette too when they were playing, a cocky, confident one. 

It really seemed that she’d broken out of her shell. She was now actively trash talking him at the game when they were playing, smirking when his health bar went down, and simply scoffing when he talked back. It was refreshing to see this side of her, and he got so wound up in playing with her that he didn’t even realize the other two had left and were now lounging on the chaise, watching something on their phones.

Adrien thought about being considerate and inviting them back, but he truthfully didn’t want that. He was worried that if he did anything to disrupt the perfect little bubble he was in currently, then Marinette would snap back to her shy self who got flustered around him. So, he decided not to say anything.

Unfortunately for him, the perfect little bubble did get interrupted by the alarm-like beeping that was screeching from Alya’s phone. 

Both Adrien and Marinette froze, their characters unmoving on the screen as they both craned their necks over to the chaise, to meet a wide-eyed Alya.

“Guys, there’s an akuma attack!” Alya squealed, “I need to go get footage for the Ladyblog!” With that, she bolted out of the room, Nino not trailing far behind, as he yelled out to the other two that he needed to make sure she stayed safe.

Marinette sighed, how was she going to get out of this? She couldn’t just leave and transform, Adrien would be too suspicious. She couldn’t tell him to leave either, he would be even more suspicious. Little did she know that Adrien was having the exact same dilemma.


	10. The Bubblegum Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 1000 HITS! It means the world to me that people are reading this story and I can’t even express how grateful I am for all the kudos, comments, and support. Thank you once again, hope y’all enjoy the chapter.

Ladybug tumbled to the ground, falling to her hands to prevent her body from making contact with the concrete. How had she gotten here? It started back at Marinette’s house.

~

Adrien and Marinette had heard the unfortunately familiar alert from Alya’s phone go off, both registering that there was an akuma attack. The big problem was that the superheroes had no clue how to escape the confinement of Marinette’s room to go and fight.

Adrien’s adrenaline was pumping, not only from the akuma attack situation, but from excitement. Excitement of seeing his lady again. He racked his brain for a somewhat acceptable excuse. Adrien noticed the almost far away— distant—look in Marinette’s eyes, and hopefully using this as a distraction, he mumbled out, “I-I uhm,” he paused, thinking of a believable story, limbs aching to be used, heart pounding to see Ladybug, “I should probably leave, uhm, my bodyguard may get worried with the attack and all,” he managed.  


Marinette drew her thoughts away from the attack for a second, giving Adrien a small smile, “O-okay, it was fun studying.”

Honestly, he wasn’t sure why Marinette believed him, it was a pretty awful lie, but one Adrien didn’t have time to ponder on. With that he pounced out of his seat, almost too eagerly, walking out of Marinette’s room. Though he wished he could’ve stayed longer, and see more of Marinette’s energetic— no, bubbly— side, he was content that he had been able to earn himself a meek smile from her, and for now, that would have to do.

Adrien ran out the bakery, his feet brought him to the same alley he’d transformed in last time, and he silently thanked the world because the alley was secluded and empty, just what he needed. 

“Aww, are you excited to see your bugaboo~,” Plagg sneered, flying out of the blonde’s pocket, but was immediately quieted when met with Adrien's look of determination as well as annoyance. Plagg always loved when his kittens were determined, so he decided not to push more, instead preparing for the probably very long transformation he was going to have to hold in the next couple of hours.

Adrien pulled out the cheese from his pocket, “Here, eat this, I brought extra in case I have to detransform. I need to fix this mess.”

He called on his transformation, the air around him being filled with the usual neon green sparks, as the cool, black leather appeared on Adrien’s body. He extended his baton, and used it to push his body up on the next building over instead of the bakery’s, not wanting Marinette to suspect anything.

His cat ears perked up at the screams coming from afar, which he definitely wouldn’t have been able to pick up on without them. Chat started vaulting over the buildings, legs flexing and extending with each calculated jump he made. Conveniently, he passed a small flower shop on his way over to the site of the screams, and he considered buying Ladybug another rose, it was the least he could do. His ideas of that were cut short when another scream was heard, and Chat reflexively dodged the flying object—a giant wad of bright pink bubblegum—came right to him. 

Unfortunately, while being distracted, some of the bubblegum stuck to him, and to the side of his suit. Chat watched in sheer horror, as the small amount of bubblegum on his suit began growing, little by little, applying extreme amounts of pressure to his (still not fully healed) torso. He tried to pry the sticky substance off, only to be rewarded with a burning sensation to his fingertips, one that would’ve surely burnt his skin if not for his protective gloves. 

Chat racked his brain for what to do, as the pink slowly seeped farther and farther into his suit. He knew he wasn’t going to last if this somewhat acidic candy touched his skin, so he grabbed his baton desperately, shortening it and angling it so he could “scrape” the gum off of his suit. Thankfully, since it was only a small amount, Chat managed to scrape it off his suit, observing the pink bits that stuck to his baton. 

It seemed like they stopped spreading, so Chat gathered that they must be triggered by something, like body heat, or human presence. The substance stopped spreading almost immediately, instead turning almost hard and crumbly when in contact with his baton. He attempted to wipe the tip of his baton—the part covered in the disgusting bubblegum— across the pavement, since it was now in a form that could be removed, and was successful in getting the now crumbly bubblegum off. 

Chat leaped further towards where the screams he’d heard came from. He decided to forgo the rose for now, opting to stop whatever dangerous akuma was spreading this literal tooth rotting candy first. After all, as much as he loved his lady, his job was still to be the protector of Paris.

~

Marinette was silently grateful when Adrien had left, so she wouldn’t have to make up one of her horrible excuses. 

She knew it was her time to suit up and face whatever was going on outside, including facing Chat.

Chat. That was right, she got to see him. This was her chance, probably her only one, to make it up to him and fix the strain on their current partnership. Marinette scrambled over to her desk on shaky legs, begging to be used to run to Chat and make everything better.

She eyed the mittens she’d made for Chat as she opened her drawer to obtain some cookies for Tikki. She was excited to give them to the feline, excited to see his reaction, excited to just see him, to be in his presence again. She’d never thought it was possible to miss him as she was currently doing, and she hated it. 

“Here,” Marinette said to Tikki, handing her the chocolate chip cookies. Tikki gladly accepted, “Excited to see him?” 

Marinette could almost see the playfulness in the kwami’s tone, but chose to ignore it, instead responding with an almost dreamy, “Yeah.”

“Well then-,” spoke the little bug, shoveling the rest of the treat into her mouth, “-we should get going.”

“You're right! Oh no, Chat’s probably already there,” the bluenette exclaimed nervously.

“Relax Marinette, remember this is your partner, who loves you, so it’ll be fine.”

“Tikki, spots on!”

Marinette was enveloped in the pink sparks, as the red spandex began coating her skin. Once fully transformed, Marinette leaned over to grab the green mittens, but was stopped in her tracks when a loud shriek was heard from out of her window.

That terrifying shriek made Marinette forget the gift, and instead run to her balcony, observing the quickest way to get to the source of the shriek. When she found a sturdy looking lamppost, Ladybug swung her yo-yo, latching onto it as she propelled herself forward.

After what seemed like an extended amount of time, due to Ladybug’s sudden eagerness to see a certain feline, she arrived at the scene of the screams, looking over the city from the top of a building.

Buildings were covered with a pink residue, some of which looked like it was hardening and falling off the sides. Ladybug observed further as a single figure stood in the middle of all the chaos. The figure looked like a little girl—no more than 7 or 8 years old— as she maniacally giggled at the mess transpiring before her.

She was using webs of pink bubble gum to stick to buildings and gain mobility. Ladybug took note of all of this, deciding to watch from a far away point before pouncing, because she didn’t know how the fight would transpire, and she really didn’t have the energy to take part in a long, drawn out fight today.

The little girl seemed to be shooting people with the gum from her bright pint crystallized gloves. She had cornered a particularly unlucky lady and used her bubblegum on her, watching as the woman shrieked in horror as the gum spread on her clothes, successfully enveloping them. The woman looked like she was close to being consumed by the raging stickiness, her pleas and begs to the akuma only growing louder and louder by the second. 

Ladybug was about to step in, foot almost off the edge of the building, yo-yo prepared to swing through and save the woman, but was stopped when a firm grasp felt its way around her waist, pulling her back ever so gently, so that she wasn’t teetering the edge of the building. Before turning and facing the inevitable person she knew that, from his familiar grasp, and signature clean smell, was holding her; she kept her eyes strained on the scene in front of her, watching as the akumatized child stopped the bubblegum before it could do any real damage to the woman, which was odd. 

It seemed like she was trying to push the woman over the edge, just to tears, before letting her go, not even attempting to hurt her further. Normally akumas had a goal to make a mess of the city, not caring about the consequences of civilians, but it seemed this particular akuma ignored those traditions, instead pulling back before any real damage could be done.

Ladybug felt the grip on her waist moving away as she found herself steadied on the roof. She knew he was there. She knew he was right next to her, and that if she turned her head she was going to see him, and she wanted to see him, so she did. She turned her head around, almost in a whipping motion from the speed, and came face to face with the neon green eyes she’d grown accustomed to, paired with a small smile.

“Ah, sorry-,” Chat said, removing his arms stepping away out of pure respect and concern in case Ladybug didn’t want him near her at the moment, “- just didn’t want you to jump into the action without seeing the full situation, the akuma seems to stop her control over the gum every time she gets close to hurting someone,” he rubbed his neck nervously at the lack of response coming from the polka-dotted hero. Chat willed himself to look into her bright blue eyes, and was immediately rewarded with the feeling of comfort as he looked at her, but was surprised when she didn’t return his gaze. Ladybug was just staring at him, studying him, like she hadn’t seen him in years, and honestly, it felt like that.

Even though it had only been a week or two, that was longer than she’d gone without seeing Chat for a while, and she had been ignoring him too. That short amount of time must’ve messed with her head because she found herself openly gaping at Chat. Since they’ve worked together for years now, it was obvious they had both grown and developed, but with their usual proximity, it didn’t seem like much changed as they both grew. But now, now, Ladybug found herself staring at the obvious height difference that she either hadn’t noticed before, or chose to ignore. Now she found herself wide-eyed at the way the leather shaped her partner’s body flawlessly, exposing every curve and dip of his defined chest to his toned stomach. Now she found her eyes making their way to his muscular arms, the ones he had pulled away to help her analyze the situation better.

“Uhm, Ladybug,” Chat questioned apprehensively.

That snapped Ladybug right out of her little world, cheeks heating up as she realized she just checked her partner out. Right. In. Front. Of. Him. She wanted to melt into a puddle and die. Ladybug was positive that if they weren’t in their little emotionally rocky period, Chat would've teased her every little bit of her for her stare down, and she wouldn’t blame him. But now those neon green eyes, the ones usually filled with so much mischief and cockiness, looked nervous and scared as they bored into wide ones.

Chat let out a shaky breath, hoping he could find the words to complete his statement without fully breaking down in front of Ladybug, “I-I’m really sorry for everything that happened, and everything I said, and how it all turned out. I didn’t mean it, and I totally understand if you can’t reciprocate my feelings and—,”

He was cut off by a rather loud shriek, one that made both the heroes’ heads turn from each other to the streets below them, where another civilian was having bubblegum used against them. This one in particular was a man who was being strung up by wads of thick, sticky bubble gum, pinning him to the brick wall.

Ladybug knew it was absolutely no time to talk about feelings right now, as an akuma was openly prancing around the city, and she mentally cursed herself for getting distracted. 

She gave Chat an almost apologetic look at being cut off, but there was also a hint of comfort in her gaze, one that Chat definitely did not miss. Ladybug got into her previous stance, ready to pounce of the building to save the city, but before she did, she made sure to say,

“We can finish this after we’ve dealt with this pink mess.” She tried to add a hint of playfulness into her tone, to snap Chat out of whatever nervous mindset he was in, needing his head to be fully present for when they fight this akuma.

Ladybug swung off the roof, successfully landing right in between the man who was strapped to the wall, and the now infuriated akuma. Using her yo-yo as defense , Ladybug began spinning the string so that the yo-yo could act as a makeshift shield. 

“Well, well, what do we have here? Don’t you know it’s not very nice to go around terrorizing people,” her statement practically oozed confidence, and Chat would’ve probably swooned if he wasn’t focused on the strings of bubblegum webbing from the akuma’s gloves.

The akuma’s eyes narrowed against the pink mask coating the upper half of her face. Her lips pressed into a scowl, as she put her hands up in a way that seemed almost defensive, if not for the pink webs shooting out her fingertips.

“I AM BITSY BUBBLEGUM, AND YOUR MIRACULOUS WILL BE MINE,” she yelled in a harsh, high pitched voice. It seemed her distraction left enough hesitance in her movements that the man was unpinned from the walls, the once sticky bubblegum, now crumbling. 

The heroes observed this as it happened, trying to figure out how Bitsy’s powers worked. They both had a pretty good idea. Bitsy could control the gum from her fingertips, and could use it as she pleased, but because of her attention span, after a bit the gum would fall apart, leaving a crumbly residue.

Lowering himself on his baton as his feet touched the ground, Chat purred out, “Don’t go getting too  _ gumfortable _ , you haven’t gotten anything yet.”

Ladybug felt the familiar eye-roll wash over her, as she scoffed at his antics. How could he always crack a joke at times like these? She didn’t have time to really ponder the thought, watching as the scowl once present on Bitsy’s face warped into a mischievous look. And just like that, the akuma fired its webs to the nearest building, sticking to it, and using it as momentum to spring forward.

In an instant, she was gone, running through the city, using her power to help propel her forward. Just as the akuma did this, Chat Noir and Ladybug gave each other a knowing look, and went on opposite sides of the buildings, hoping to either corner the villain, or catch her off guard.

She was fast, and her sticky webs only added to her speed, allowing her to move quicker than the duo had thought. While they did their best to keep up, the two were not a match for her speed, and they realised that all too soon.

Panting and out of breath, Ladybug slowed down on her side of the building, taking a very much needed break. Chat noticed that the blur opposite to him had seized movement, so he stopped too, panting quite a bit with her. Ladybug used her yo-yo to swing herself to Chat’s side of the street.

“We need a plan,” she said, mouth dry from all the panting and running. She said it simply, business like, because Ladybug knew that feeling were a topic for when the city wasn’t in danger.

She hadn’t anticipated a chase down, and she was caught off guard by the akuma fleeing. Normally, akumas would be more offensive rather that defensive, always taking the first swing, spewing out nonsense of stealing their jewelry, and then meeting their match when the heroes found out their weakness. But this one seemed to change the game up in multiple ways; she didn’t actually hurt civilians, and she was more defensive. It seemed that maybe Hawkmoth was trying out a new approach, and that made Ladybug’s stomach fill with worry.

“Yeah, but we can’t use our powers yet because if she runs our kwamis won’t have the energy to keep up,” he was still breathing heavily, but the initial burning sensation had reduced.

Chat made a valid point. If they wasted their special abilities they weren’t going to keep up with this odd akuma. However, if they just stood and waited, they weren’t going to make any progress either. They thought about what they could do, but none of there options seemed too beneficial. If they stayed here the akuma could terrorize dozens of people, and though the intention didn’t seem to hurt civilians, the heroes weren’t going to risk it. If they chased the villain down, then what? The akuma still had bubblegum—very acidic and sticky bubblegum— coursing through her hands. Ladybug and Chat Noir were stuck for the time being.

Before either of them had a chance to make a plan, another shrill sound echoed into the air. The akuma probably had gotten bored running without a chase, and had gone back to scaring people. This was their chance to pounce. 

“I’ll go left,” whispered Chat, as he prepared his baton for the jump from the roof down to the cement. 

Ladybug nodded, and they both jumped down at the same time, both feeling a little victorious as the akuma didn’t notice them as they creeped closer to her from either sides of the alleyway. 

Bitsy seemed to be terrorizing a little girl, who looked no older than she was, crying for her life on the ground. Her hands and legs were roped in by the bubblegum, and the effects of the acidity seemed to come in slow, short bursts, making the little girl squeal louder with pain as each one went on.

Chat walked out of his alleyway, acting nonchalant, as he sent Ladybug a look somewhat of, “I’ll be the distraction.” Ladybug nodded, signifying that she knew of his plan. 

“You know, I don’t think that’s such a nice thing to do, could be  _ catastrophic _ ” Chat said, getting into a fighting stance as Bitsy swiveled her head to meet his neon eyes. As her distraction shifted, so did the strings of gum, that were now no longer hurting the little girl, but moving behind the akuma’s head like animals, ready to pounce on their prey. Ladybug saw this, and tried to scan the akuma’s outfit for any clues where the akuma was. 

The outfit was a bright pink (obviously very fitting) and was made out of latex looking material, much like Ladybug’s suit, but had frills and sequins everywhere. She observed Bitsy’s gloves, and how there was darker pink material webbing her fingers, and also seemed to be where the bubblegum was being produced from. A magenta mask covered her face, covered with little black rhinestones and glitter. The latex fabric that coated her feet went all the way to her neck, where there was a little necklace resting. It looked like one of those friendship necklaces Marinette made back when she was a kid, and it seemed to be glowing slightly each time a new person was captured.

She was almost positive the akuma was in there, but how she was going to get to it was another story.

Stepping out of the alleyway, Ladybug made eye contact with Chat, pointing to her collarbone to indicate where the akuma was. This was a bad move on both their parts because Chat’s attention shift didn’t go unnoticed by Bitsy.

Without hesitation, Bitsy’s head swiveled once again, this time focussing on Ladybug as pink reams of bubblegum shot towards the heroine. Chat’s mind couldn’t act quick enough as his body sprinted, sprinted as fast as he possibly could towards Ladybug. 

In a mere second, Chat was in front of Ladybug, harshly pushing her to the side with maximum force and shielding her from the bubblegum. 

~

That was how she’d gotten here. Ladybug, who was now on the ground on her hands, screamed with horror as she watched the bubblegum begin the squeeze against Chat’s lithe body.

“Chat,” she screamed, as she saw the gum starting to have an effect on him, making him wince in pain. She was beginning to regain composure and starting to lift her body up from the harsh fall.

His head was running circles, his body felt as though it was on fire, his limbs were burning. Chat had effectively saved Ladybug, sacrificing himself in the problem, and was now facing the consequences of doing so. Bitsy was laughing as she watched the superhero struggle against the makeshift ropes. 

“Not so cocky now, hmm?” She coaxed, grinning as she watched Chat struggle even more against the brushing sensation. 

Ladybug snarled, pouncing at the akuma ferociously, not thinking about anything other than saving her partner. In her haste, the akuma saw the attack and swiftly dodged, remaining composure, and keeping her reigns on Chat.

It was becoming too much, way too much. He couldn’t deal with the pain. His body felt as though it was ready to collapse at any moment if he didn’t do something. His mind was racing for something, anything to do.

“Cataclysm,” Chat grunted through ragged breath, body being squeezed even tighter by the strings of gum.

The bubbling black arrived at the tip of his hand, but he couldn’t move. The ropes had tightened so much that it constricted any movement, he was stuck and had just used up his power, meaning he didn’t have too much time.

The outline of a purple mask arose on Bitsy’s face, and Hawkmoth’s voice ran through the alleyway, “THIS IS YOUR CHANCE, GRAB HIS MIRACULOUS!”

There was no way Ladybug was going to let that happen, they’d have to get through her first. Grabbing her yo-yo that was now attached to her waist, she aimed and threw it with max power, wrapping around one of Bitsy’s wrists, and distracting her.

“CHAT, NOW,” she screamed, tugging on the yo-yo as the akuma attempted to fight against it.

Chat Noir brought his now slightly movable wrist up to the middle of his stomach and touched the growing patch of pink gum. It immediately turned black, crumbling against the agonizing power of destruction. He fell to his knees, taking short pants, attempting to regain his breathing.

After Ladybug watched Chat free himself, she turned her attention back to Bitsy, who was already redirecting her bubblegum to Ladybug. The spotted heroine let out a small yelp as she reeled in her yo-yo and moved her body to avoid the pink strings coming to her. While she dodged the attack, Bitsy took off again, this time having a head start.

Before she even began to think of running after the akuma, which would’ve been the logical thing to do, Ladybug found herself at Chat’s side. 

“Chat, oh my god, you’re okay! You… you saved me, you jumped in and saved me. You risked your life for me, you could’ve gotten seriously hurt.”

She was never more pleased to be met with his cheeky grin as he looked at her, still panting, body still burning, “Of course, you know I’d risk my life over and over if it meant you’d be okay, M’lady.”

Ladybug pulled him into a bone crushing hug, accidentally squeezing everywhere that had previously been aching from the iron grip the ropes had on him. She rested her head on his shoulder, arms around his neck, and she relaxed for a second, knowing that he was fine, and not hurt or injured, or worse.

Chat brought his hands hesitantly to Ladybug’s waist, pulling her even closer than she was (if that was even possible). She was shorter than him, so when he rested his head on her head he could smell her fragrant shampoo and her familiar, warming vanilla smell. 

They stayed like that for a few seconds before Chat pulled away rather quickly. “Oh crap, the akuma, she’s still on the loose. We need to beat her soon, I already used my cataclysm so I don’t have much time and we still have to talk.”

Ladybug removed her hands from Chat’s neck, feeling a little embarrassed over her previous actions, but ultimately she tried to come up with a plan.

“You’re right, we don’t have much time, Hawmoth’s going to grow impatient and start manipulating that little girl even more. We don’t really have a choice—,” she started, standing up, “—lucky charm!”

From the now orange tinted sky, a little square of blue bubblegum came falling down into Ladybug’s palm.

“More gum, seriously, like we need more of that. What are we even going to do with that,” Chat questioned, annoyance apparent in his tone.

“Umm,” Ladybug scanned her surroundings, hoping that something would glow red, because she was at a loss too. It’s not like they really needed gum at all, half the city was covered in the residue the akuma had left behind anyways; so how it would be useful was a complete mystery to her. She kept looking around until she stopped when something glowed. Ladybug spotted a faint pink blur hunching over a couple far away buildings.

Everything finally clicked in her head when she searched around and two very far away lampposts glowed. “I have an idea. After all she is still a child, and since she’s obsessed with bubblegum, let’s show her some she’s never seen before,” she held up the blue bubblegum for Chat to see, “so, we lure her in and trap her with my yo-yo, then we get her necklace.”

“Sounds like a plan, M’lady. Still not quite sure how you got all of that from a single piece of blue gum, but I’ll go along with it—,” he pouted a bit and Ladybug gave him a questioning look, “—are we going to have time to talk today, I really want to fix things.”

“Once we defeat the akuma we can recharge and then meet at the Eiffel Tower, but for now we have to focus on defeating her.” 

“On it, Bugaboo,” he said, earning a glare from Ladybug. She secretly loved that nickname, but Chat was never going to know that.

“Here,” Ladybug said, holding out the wrapped piece of gum, “you distract her with the gum and I’ll set the trap with my yo-yo.”

Chat took the gum into his clawed hand, “I don’t have a lot of time so we need to hurry.”

“I know, kitty.”

They seperated, Ladybug swinging far in front with her yo-yo, as she tried to be as quiet as possible. She needed to set a web like trap with her yo-yo in order to catch the akuma. She kept running for a while until she determined that this would be the perfect place for the trap. 

It was a street with lampposts on either side, which could serve as perfect posts for her yo-yo to swing from. Before she started, she sent Chat a message via her yo-yo, telling him where to lure the akuma.

Once the message was sent, she started wrapping her yo-yo back and forth around the posts, creating an indestructible web between them. She pulled the yo-yo taught so that Bitsy would have no chance of escape. Now she just had to wait.

Chat had also taken off, going more towards the akuma’s direction. His cat-like attributes made him stealthy and allowed him to find Bitsy rather quickly. 

“You know since your the queen of bubblegum and all—,” he said, fully anticipating the rope of gum that came towards him, and dodging it effectively, “—I thought I’d let you know I found the purrrfect piece of gum.” He held out the blue gum triumphantly.

Bitsy’s eyes widened at the sight of it, and Chat knew Ladybug’s plan was bound to work. The akuma, though powerful, was still a child, and children are easy to distract and manipulate. 

The pink gum strands immediately stopped aiming for Chat, instead going for the object in his hand. “Ah, ah, ah, if you want you’re gonna have to catch this cat,” he smirked at the now scowling akuma.

“GIVE ME THAT NOW,” she screamed.

“Like I said, catch me if you can,” with that, Chat winked and took off, knowing the akuma was hot on his tail. He opened his baton screen and started heading to the direction where Ladybug was. Luckily, he avoided all the bubblegum thrown at him, and managed to lure Bitsy to the trap. 

He stopped for a split second, flaunting the gum once again, to ensure the akuma’s focus. Then, Chat ran at full speed towards the web trap Ladybug had set up, making the akuma charge towards it too. Once he got his momentum going, Chat took his baton out and used it to push himself up as he extended it. This way he was above the yo-yo string and out of the way. The akuma on the other hand, ran straight towards the yo-yo trap, and Ladybug quickly wrapped the rest of the yo-yo around the akuma’s body. Bitsy was now trapped in a cocoon like ordeal. She struggled against the yo-yo, but found no avail. 

Ladybug was still using a lot of her force to restrain Bitsy, so she called out to Chat, “Grab her necklace!”

Chat shortened his baton, landing on the ground in front of the akuma. His gloved claw came out and he snatched the necklace right from Bitsy’s neck.

“Here M’lady.” He threw the necklace to Ladybug, who was now pulling back her yo-yo. She caught the necklace with her free hand and snapped it between her fingers, the beads spilling everywhere. The ominous black butterfly flew out, but didn’t manage to get very far as Ladybug captured it in her yo-yo, purifying it. The white butterfly flew off, and Bitsy, who was now a back to her regular civilian self, fell to the ground.

Before going to check on the little girl, Chat threw Ladybug the blue bubblegum, her lucky charm, so she could fix the damage the akuma had caused. 

“Miraculous Ladybug!” The sky was filled with little red ladybugs and the city was restored to its regular state. 

As he went to comfort the little girl on the ground, Chat’s ring started beeping and flashing, signaling that he didn’t have much time left before his transformation dropped. He pivoted around to Ladybug, “M’lady, could you handle this, this cat’s about to be out of the bag.”

“Of course,” she replied, already on her way over to the little girl.

“Wait.” He grabbed her arm lightly.

Ladybug stopped and raised an eyebrow at him.

He held a fist out and nervously rubbed the back of his neck, “We’re still meeting up right.” It came out more nervous than he expected.

She returned the fist bump casually. “Wouldn’t miss it, kitty cat,” Ladybug said with a wink.

He was so glad she couldn’t see his face due to it being dark and for his mask covering it, because he was blushing very hard at her comment. He gave her a small wave as he sprinted off somewhere safe to feed his kwami, and hopefully close enough to that flower shop he’d passed.

Ladybug comforted the little girl, helping her find her parents, who were very greatful. All she wanted to do was sort things out with Chat, she didn’t feel like talking to the press at all, so she uncharacteristically stepped away after helping the little girl, hoping to avoid them completely. Luckily she had left right before they arrived, so she was in the clear,

Ladybug took off, aiming for her house before going to the meeting spot. After all, she still needed to grab Chat’s gift.


End file.
